Question 1

How to implement exponential backoff retry with Polly?

Accepted Answer

Use the RetryStrategyOptions with BackoffType set to Exponential and configure MaxRetryAttempts and Delay, as shown in the retry snippet. You can add jitter for randomization to avoid thundering herd issues.

Question 2

Polly vs Microsoft's HttpClientFactory for resilience?

Accepted Answer

HttpClientFactory integrates Polly for HTTP-specific retries and circuit breakers, but Polly is more general-purpose for any async operation. Polly offers finer control with custom pipelines, while HttpClientFactory provides a higher-level, HTTP-focused abstraction.

Question 3

What's the difference between retry and hedging in Polly?

Accepted Answer

Retry re-executes the same operation after failures, while hedging launches parallel attempts when operations are slow, waiting for the fastest result. Hedging is useful for reducing tail latency, as explained in the hedging strategy documentation.

Question 4

How to test Polly policies in unit tests?

Accepted Answer

Use the Polly.Testing package, which provides utilities to simulate failures and verify strategy behavior. The README mentions testing support, allowing you to mock outcomes and assert pipeline responses.

Question 5

Can Polly handle async operations properly?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Polly fully supports async/await with ExecuteAsync methods and cancellation tokens, ensuring cooperative cancellation for timeouts and other strategies, as noted in the timeout strategy section.

Question 6

How to set up circuit breaker with Polly in ASP.NET Core?

Accepted Answer

Add the Polly.Extensions package, define a resilience pipeline with AddCircuitBreaker in DI, and inject it using ResiliencePipelineProvider. Configure options like FailureRatio and BreakDuration based on your service thresholds.

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