A software developer recently shared an eye-opening story on the subreddit Developers India about a startup launch that fell apart in mere minutes. He joined the company just a month prior, brought on urgently to handle backend and DevOps responsibilities after the previous engineer left abruptly. The startup was preparing to go live that month, and time was already critical.
Backend Appeared Solid
From a backend perspective, everything seemed organized. The code, built using NestJS, was structured reasonably well, with no major red flags. On paper, the project appeared ready. But the glaring issue was that no one had tested the iOS application. There were no quality checks, no staging tests, and no sanity verification. The push to release on the App Store took priority over validation.
One Day to Set Up Infrastructure
The developer had only a single day to configure the entire system, including CPU and GPU instances, caching, CI/CD pipelines, SSL certificates, and all other essential infrastructure. Despite the immense pressure, he managed to get the system operational.
Launch Descends into Chaos
When launch day arrived, initial user signups triggered immediate problems. Random errors surfaced, the app froze for some users, and crashes spread across the system. Despite rigorous backend testing with scripts and unit tests, everything had worked perfectly in isolation.
Uncovering the Root Cause
Investigation revealed a series of missteps in the iOS application. The app was calling multiple home screen APIs immediately upon startup, even before login, firing seven to eight requests simultaneously. To make matters worse, the signup API and user profile API executed in parallel. While the signup process attempted to create a new user in the primary database, the profile request queried a read replica.
Replication Delay Triggers Failures
The production environment had a 300-millisecond delay between the master database and its replica. As a result, the profile API often retrieved outdated information, causing signup failures and random errors for users.
Last-Minute Changes Amplify Problems
Compounding the issue, the iOS team added error popups the night before launch. Failures that had previously gone unnoticed now appeared directly to users, magnifying the chaos.
From Planned Launch to Instant Disaster
Within just 15 minutes of going live, what was intended as a controlled launch turned into a complete meltdown, highlighting the dangers of rushed development, untested applications, and last-minute changes.
Backend Appeared Solid
From a backend perspective, everything seemed organized. The code, built using NestJS, was structured reasonably well, with no major red flags. On paper, the project appeared ready. But the glaring issue was that no one had tested the iOS application. There were no quality checks, no staging tests, and no sanity verification. The push to release on the App Store took priority over validation.
One Day to Set Up Infrastructure
The developer had only a single day to configure the entire system, including CPU and GPU instances, caching, CI/CD pipelines, SSL certificates, and all other essential infrastructure. Despite the immense pressure, he managed to get the system operational.
Launch Descends into Chaos
When launch day arrived, initial user signups triggered immediate problems. Random errors surfaced, the app froze for some users, and crashes spread across the system. Despite rigorous backend testing with scripts and unit tests, everything had worked perfectly in isolation.
Uncovering the Root Cause
Investigation revealed a series of missteps in the iOS application. The app was calling multiple home screen APIs immediately upon startup, even before login, firing seven to eight requests simultaneously. To make matters worse, the signup API and user profile API executed in parallel. While the signup process attempted to create a new user in the primary database, the profile request queried a read replica.
Replication Delay Triggers Failures
The production environment had a 300-millisecond delay between the master database and its replica. As a result, the profile API often retrieved outdated information, causing signup failures and random errors for users.
Last-Minute Changes Amplify Problems
Compounding the issue, the iOS team added error popups the night before launch. Failures that had previously gone unnoticed now appeared directly to users, magnifying the chaos.
From Planned Launch to Instant Disaster
Within just 15 minutes of going live, what was intended as a controlled launch turned into a complete meltdown, highlighting the dangers of rushed development, untested applications, and last-minute changes.
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