Rate Limiting is a technique used to control the rate at which a user can send requests to a server. It is implemented to prevent abuse, ensure fair usage, and protect server resources from being overwhelmed by excessive requests. Rate limiting is typically configured to allow a certain number of requests within a specified time period. When the limit is reached, further requests are either delayed or blocked. This technique is crucial for maintaining the performance and availability of web services, and it is often encountered during web scraping activities. Understanding and respecting rate limits is essential for ethical and effective web scraping.