Gateway Gus saysCompression (gzip, brotli, zstd) shrinks responses on the wire for faster transfers.
Text payloads (JSON, HTML) compress dramatically. The client advertises Accept-Encoding: gzip, br; the server compresses and sets Content-Encoding. Brotli (br) beats gzip on ratio for text; zstd is the newer fast option. Compression is near-free latency savings — enable it for text responses (skip already-compressed binaries like images).
Power-ups you unlock
Accept-Encoding advertises support
Server compresses, sets Content-Encoding
Brotli > gzip for text; zstd is the new fast option
Skip compressing already-compressed binaries
Timeout Titan attacks — common mistakes
Not enabling compression on text APIs
Re-compressing JPEGs/PNGs (wasted CPU)
Forgetting Content-Encoding so clients can’t decode
Boss battleName which responses benefit from compression and which don’t.