Hussein Nasser: HTTP Graceful shutdown | The Backend Engineering Show

HTTP Graceful Shutdown 101

In this episode of The Backend Engineering Show, Hussein Nasser breaks down why closing connections gently matters (think freeing resources, stopping bad actors and avoiding half-finished requests) and how to do it in HTTP/1.1 with the Connection header and in HTTP/2 using the GOAWAY frame.

He also digs into real-world Chromium code, compares the costs and benefits of HTTP/2’s multiplexing, and timestamps each section—from “Why shutdown?” to “GoAWAY frame deep dive”—so you can jump straight to the good stuff. Perfect for backend engineers who hate surprises and love clean shutdowns.

Watch on YouTube