GitHub API Rate Limit Analysis

A comprehensive analysis of GitHub's API rate limiting behavior through systematic testing and visualization.

📊 Overview

This project provides a detailed investigation into how GitHub's API implements rate limiting, including:

• Response time analysis across different request patterns
• Rate limit boundary testing to understand limits and behavior
• Visualizations of API performance and rate limiting patterns
• Comprehensive report with findings and recommendations

🚀 Features

• Multiple Test Patterns: Burst, sustained, and varied delay requests
• Detailed Metrics: Response times, status codes, rate limit headers
• Data Visualization: Matplotlib charts showing patterns and analysis
• Boundary Testing: Testing rate limit exhaustion and retry behavior
• Production Recommendations: Best practices for API consumers

📁 Project Structure

├── scripts/                    # Python testing scripts
│   ├── api_rate_limit_test.py           # Main testing script
│   ├── rate_limit_boundary_test.py      # Boundary testing script
│   └── rate_limit_boundary_test_fixed.py # Fixed boundary testing
├── data/                       # Raw test results
│   ├── api_test_results.json            # Initial test results
│   └── rate_limit_boundary_results.json # Boundary test results
├── visualizations/             # Generated charts
│   ├── api_test_visualizations.png      # Main analysis charts
│   └── rate_limit_boundary_analysis.png # Boundary analysis charts
├── docs/                       # Documentation
│   └── api_rate_limit_summary_report.md # Comprehensive report
└── README.md                   # This file

🛠️ Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• Required packages: requests, pandas, matplotlib, numpy

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/0reilly/github-api-rate-limit-analysis.git
cd github-api-rate-limit-analysis

# Install dependencies
pip install requests pandas matplotlib numpy

Running Tests

# Run main API rate limit tests
python scripts/api_rate_limit_test.py

# Run boundary testing
python scripts/rate_limit_boundary_test_fixed.py

📈 Key Findings

Rate Limit Configuration

• Unauthenticated Limit: 60 requests per hour
• Rate Limit Headers: Comprehensive headers including remaining, limit, and reset time
• Error Response: HTTP 403 with clear rate limit information

Performance Characteristics

• Average Response Time: ~100ms
• Response Time Range: 56ms - 185ms
• Performance Consistency: Stable across all request patterns

Rate Limit Behavior

• First Limit Hit: Request #47 when remaining reached 0
• Retry Behavior: Partial reset after waiting periods
• Header Clarity: Excellent documentation in response headers

📊 Visualizations

API Test Visualizations

Analysis:

• Top Left: Response times remain consistent (~100ms) across all requests
• Top Right: All requests returned 200 status codes (successful)
• Bottom Left: Rate limit decreases predictably with each request
• Bottom Right: Response times follow a normal distribution around 100ms

Rate Limit Boundary Analysis

Analysis:

• Top Left: Rate limit decreases steadily, with red line showing where limit was hit
• Top Right: Green dots show successful requests (200), red dots show rate-limited requests (403)
• Bottom Left: Cumulative requests vs remaining rate limit shows linear consumption
• Bottom Right: Response times remain stable throughout the test duration

📋 Usage Examples

Basic API Testing

from scripts.api_rate_limit_test import GitHubAPITester

tester = GitHubAPITester()
tester.test_burst_pattern(10)
tester.test_sustained_pattern(10, 1)
results = tester.analyze_results()

Boundary Testing

from scripts.rate_limit_boundary_test_fixed import RateLimitBoundaryTester

tester = RateLimitBoundaryTester()
tester.test_rate_limit_exhaustion(70)
tester.test_retry_after_rate_limit()

🔧 Customization

You can customize the testing by:

• Modifying request patterns in the scripts
• Changing the target API endpoint
• Adjusting delay intervals and request counts
• Adding additional metrics collection

📝 Report

See the comprehensive analysis report in docs/api_rate_limit_summary_report.md for:

• Detailed methodology
• Complete findings
• Technical insights
• Production recommendations

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or open issues for:

• Additional API endpoints testing
• Enhanced visualization features
• New testing methodologies
• Documentation improvements

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• GitHub for providing a well-documented and reliable API
• The open-source community for the Python libraries used
• Contributors and testers who help improve this analysis