retries3

retries3 is a term used in fault-tolerant software design to describe a retry policy that permits up to three attempts to complete a potentially failing operation. It is commonly applied to operations such as network calls, database queries, or inter-service communications that may fail transiently due to short-lived conditions like network congestion or timeouts.

In a typical retries3 implementation, the initial attempt is followed by up to two retry attempts if the operation does not succeed. After each failed attempt, the system waits using a backoff strategy before retrying. Common backoffs include fixed delays, exponential backoff, and backoff with jitter to reduce synchronized retries.

Key design considerations include ensuring the operation is idempotent or safely repeatable, distinguishing between retriable and non-retriable errors, and providing cancellation support. Logging and metrics are commonly used to observe retry behavior and latency.

Variations may differ in whether the initial attempt is counted as an attempt or whether the policy permits zero additional retries after success; some implementations allow configuration of which errors are considered retriable. The concept is often implemented as a reusable utility, wrapper, or framework component and can be language-specific.

Relation to other patterns: while retries3 limits attempts, other approaches such as circuit breakers, timeouts, or adaptive retry policies may be used to improve resilience in systems with variable latency or failure rates.

See also: retry policy, backoff strategy, idempotence, circuit breaker.