Find the optimal backoff ratio for retrying failed requests

retry_backoff_test.py

from __future__ import division

# Usage:
# python retry_backoff_test.py | sort | uniq -c


def test(ratio, target):
    timeout = 0.5
    duration = timeout
    tries = 0
    while duration < target:
        timeout *= ratio
        duration += timeout
        tries += 1
    return tries, duration


if __name__ == '__main__':
    for target_duration in range(100):
        winner = None
        winner_time = float('inf')
        winner_tries = 0
        for ratio in range(12, 32, 2):
            ratio /= 10
            tries, duration = test(ratio, target_duration)
            if duration < winner_time:
                winner = ratio
                winner_time = duration
                winner_tries = tries
        print(winner)