Fallback
Domain: Software Engineering
🎯 Motivation
A backup plan when the primary approach fails. Keeps the system running.
📋 Concrete Example
Fallback: primary AI model is down. Fallback to a simpler model. Fallback to cached response. Fallback to a default message. The system keeps responding, even if not perfectly.
🔗 Analogy
A fallback is like a spare key - if you lose your main key (primary fails), the spare key (fallback) gets you in. Not as convenient, but it works. Systems need fallbacks for reliability.