HTTP Graceful shutdown | The Backend Engineering Show

In this episode, Hussein walks you through why backends sometimes need to politely close HTTP connections—whether it’s to dodge bad actors, free up resources, or avoid weird edge cases. You’ll see how HTTP/1.1 uses the Connection header for a smooth teardown and why HTTP/2’s GOAWAY frame is its own beast (with a quick cost breakdown for good measure).

Along the way he timestamps each deep dive (from “Why shutdown?” at 4:58 to the GOAWAY nitty-gritty at 17:40) and even drops links to Chromium source code, related issues, and his own backend courses if you want to go further.

Watch on YouTube