A systems project for exploring the behavior of feed handlers and downstream consumers under uneven traffic.

What it does

  • emits synthetic market-style events with configurable burst patterns
  • measures throughput and queue depth under different consumer strategies
  • compares parsing, batching, and dispatch approaches
  • logs median and tail latency for each stage in the path

Why I built it

I wanted a controlled environment for testing low-latency assumptions without needing access to a production data source. This makes it easier to reason about backpressure, message sizing, and where latency variance actually comes from.

What I am learning from it

  • small memory decisions can create visible downstream effects
  • throughput alone is a weak metric without tail-latency visibility
  • instrumentation has to be cheap enough to keep enabled during iteration