After a surge, your Firebase/Firestore-based game hit HTTP 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED errors. The app is stable now but you expect another surge soon. What quick changes minimize repeat throttling?

The correct answer combines two crucial strategies. Optimizing database queries directly reduces the load on Firestore, making your application more efficient and less likely to hit resource limits during a surge. This is a proactive measure. Implementing exponential backoff for retries is a reactive measure that handles temporary throttling gracefully. When an API call fails with a RESOURCEEXHAUSTED error, exponential backoff retries the call with progressively longer delays, preventing a "thundering herd" problem where many clients retry simultaneously, exacerbating the issue. Fixed backoff is less effective as it doesn't adapt to the server's recovery time. Requesting a quota increase is a longer-term solution that might not be approved quickly enough for an imminent surge and doesn't address potential inefficiencies in your application.