Random Bulletin

Jul 1, 2026 · Operations

Evolving Message Expiration for 10 Million QPS: From No TTL to Smart Policies

When a high‑traffic system processes billions of messages per day, stale “zombie” messages can corrupt business state; this article walks through the evolution from never‑expiring queues to uniform TTL, then per‑topic and per‑message TTL, and finally to smart, context‑aware expiration, detailing the engineering trade‑offs, implementation patterns, and operational checklist needed for reliable 10 M‑QPS message pipelines.