Python Retry Mechanism with incremental timeouts

Last update on September 03 2025 11:33:27 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Write a Python program to set up a retry mechanism with incremental timeouts to handle transient network issues.

Sample Solution:

Python Code :

import urllib3
from urllib3.util.retry import Retry
from urllib3.exceptions import MaxRetryError
import time

def make_request_with_retry(url):
    # Define maximum number of retries
    total_retries = 3
    
    # Define initial timeout
    initial_timeout = 1  # in seconds
    
    # Define backoff factor for exponential backoff
    backoff_factor = 2
    
    # Create a Retry object with incremental timeouts
    retry_strategy = Retry(total=total_retries,
                           backoff_factor=backoff_factor,
                           status_forcelist=[500, 502, 503, 504],
                           raise_on_status=False)
    
    # Create a PoolManager with the retry strategy
    http = urllib3.PoolManager(retries=retry_strategy)
    
    for attempt in range(total_retries + 1):
        try:
            # Make a GET request
            response = http.request('GET', url)
            
            # Check if the request was successful (status code 200)
            if response.status == 200:
                print("Request Successful:")
                print(response.data.decode('utf-8'))
                break  # Exit the loop if successful
            
        except MaxRetryError as e:
            print(f"Error: Maximum retries exceeded. {e}")
            break  # Exit the loop if maximum retries exceeded
        
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Error: {e}")
        
        # Increment the timeout for the next retry attempt
        timeout = initial_timeout * (backoff_factor ** attempt)
        print(f"Retrying in {timeout} seconds...")
        time.sleep(timeout)

# Define the URL for the request
url = 'https://www.example.com'

# Make the request with retry mechanism
make_request_with_retry(url)

Sample Output:

Request Successful:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example Domain</title>

    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
    <style type="text/css">
    body {
        background-color: #f0f0f2;
        margin: 0;
        padding: 0;
        font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
        
    }
    div {
        width: 600px;
        margin: 5em auto;
        padding: 2em;
        background-color: #fdfdff;
        border-radius: 0.5em;
        box-shadow: 2px 3px 7px 2px rgba(0,0,0,0.02);
    }
    a:link, a:visited {
        color: #38488f;
        text-decoration: none;
    }
    @media (max-width: 700px) {
        div {
            margin: 0 auto;
            width: auto;
        }
    }
    </style>    
</head>

<body>
<div>
    <h1>Example Domain</h1>
    <p>This domain is for use in illustrative examples in documents. You may use this
    domain in literature without prior coordination or asking for permission.</p>
    <p><a href="https://www.iana.org/domains/example">More information...</a></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Explanation:

Here's a brief explanation of the above Python urllib3 library code:

First define a function "make_request_with_retry" to make a request with a retry mechanism.
Use the 'Retry' object from "urllib3.util.retry" to define the retry strategy with incremental timeouts and specific HTTP status codes to retry.
Next create a 'PoolManager' with the defined retry strategy.
Loop through the request attempts, retrying if necessary.
Use exponential backoff to increase the timeout for each retry attempt.
Handle exceptions such as 'MaxRetryError' and generic exceptions.
Finally make a GET request to the specified URL using the defined retry mechanism.

Flowchart:

Flowchart: Python Retry Mechanism with incremental timeouts.

Python Code Editor :

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