Hussein Nasser: HTTP Graceful shutdown | The Backend Engineering Show

HTTP Graceful Shutdown TL;DR

Here’s the scoop: your backend sometimes needs to close connections cleanly—to dodge rogue clients, free up resources, or just keep things tidy. In this episode of The Backend Engineering Show, Hussein breaks down how HTTP/1.1 uses the Connection header and how HTTP/2 leans on the GOAWAY frame to wind things down without dropping requests.

Along the way, you’ll get a quick cost vs. benefit look at HTTP/2’s approach, step-by-step timestamps for each deep dive (from “why shut down” to “how GOAWAY works”), and a wrap-up of best practices to keep your APIs humming smoothly.

Watch on YouTube