Скачать или смотреть Day 36: Task Prioritization with Message Queues

Why Some Tasks Can’t Wait

Picture yourself at a hospital emergency room. A patient with a minor cut waits patiently while doctors rush past to treat someone having a heart attack. This isn’t unfair—it’s intelligent resource allocation based on urgency. Your task scheduler faces the same challenge: not all tasks are equal.

In real systems like YouTube’s video processing pipeline, a creator uploading content for a scheduled premiere needs faster processing than someone uploading a vlog from last week. Uber prioritizes real-time ride matching over generating weekly driver reports. Stripe processes fraud alerts before routine account statements. The pattern is clear: urgency matters.

Without prioritization, your scheduler treats all tasks identically—first-in, first-out. A million low-priority email notifications could delay a critical payment processing task. Your system becomes democratically inefficient.