The Throttle Wall

A hard Python interview practice problem on DataDriven. Write and execute real python code with instant grading.

Domain

Python

Difficulty

hard

Seniority

L4

Problem

An API gateway throttles each client independently: within any `window_ms` window a client may keep at most `max_requests` accepted calls. The `operations` list opens with `['init', max_requests, window_ms]` to configure the limiter and is followed by `['is_allowed', client_id, timestamp]` decisions; return one result per entry, `None` for the configure step and then `True` or `False` for each decision. A call is allowed only when the client has fewer than `max_requests` accepted calls still inside the half-open window `(timestamp - window_ms, timestamp]`, and a denied call is never recorded, so a throttled client becomes eligible again as soon as its earlier accepted calls age out.

Summary

Stop the abusers. Let the rest through.

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