An Eventful Journey: Building Federated GraphQL Subscriptions

Abstract

Real-time APIs are powerful - but making them work across a federated GraphQL architecture can quickly become a tangle of duplicated logic, performance bottlenecks, and inconsistent data. In this talk, we'll share how we evolved our GraphQL Federation from per-service subscription handling to a model where the federation gateway connects directly to an event system. This shift simplified the whole architecture and unlocked new ways to deliver consistent, scalable real-time updates across distributed microservices. You'll learn: - How to design federated subscriptions that scale across services and teams - Practical strategies for dealing with eventual consistency and data freshness - Techniques to overcome performance bottlenecks like "thundering herd" - Advantages from running this architecture in production at scale Whether you're designing your first federated GraphQL system or evolving one already in production, this session will help you rethink how event-driven patterns can make real-time APIs simpler, faster, and more resilient.