What is Traffic Flooding?

Traffic flooding is a phenomenon where a system or network receives an overwhelming volume of requests in a short period. This flood of activity can come from either legitimate users, automated scripts, or malicious actors attempting to disrupt normal operations. When the number of incoming requests exceeds the system’s capacity to process them, performance suffers dramatically. You may notice slow response times, failed transactions, or even complete service outages.

Traffic flooding can occur for several reasons. Sometimes, a sudden surge in popularity—such as during a major sale or a viral event—can trigger a flood of legitimate requests. More often, however, traffic flooding is the result of deliberate attacks, like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) incidents, where attackers use networks of compromised devices to bombard a target with massive traffic.

The impact of traffic flooding is significant. Systems may become unresponsive, critical services might be interrupted, and users could lose trust in the reliability of your platform. Understanding how and why traffic flooding happens is the first step in designing resilient systems that can withstand these challenges and maintain service availability under stress.