Message Queues: RabbitMQ and AWS SQS Patterns

Message queues enable asynchronous, decoupled communication. This guide covers implementing reliable messaging.

RabbitMQ Basics#

Publisher#

Consumer#

Exchange Patterns#

AWS SQS#

Standard Queue#

FIFO Queue#

Dead Letter Queues#

Message Patterns#

Request-Reply#

Pub/Sub with SNS + SQS#

Best Practices#

1. Use persistent messages: Survive broker restarts
2. Implement idempotency: Handle duplicate messages
3. Set message TTL: Prevent queue buildup
4. Use dead letter queues: Capture failed messages
5. Monitor queue depth: Alert on growing backlogs
6. Graceful shutdown: Finish processing before stopping

Choose RabbitMQ for complex routing, SQS for AWS-native simplicity.