HTTP Graceful Shutdown | The Backend Engineering Show

In this episode, Hussein explains why backends sometimes need to close connections gracefully—whether it’s to thwart bad actors, free up resources, or ensure pending requests finish cleanly. He then walks through how HTTP/1.1 handles this via the Connection: close header and how HTTP/2 uses the GOAWAY frame, comparing costs and pointing out key Chromium source snippets and issue trackers.

He timestamps each segment so you can jump straight to the intro, the “why,” the HTTP/1.1 deep dive, the HTTP/2 cost discussion, the GOAWAY breakdown, and the final summary. Plenty of links for further reading and related courses round out the show.

Watch on YouTube