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We have something similar with AWS Cognito. If a user signs up but doesn't go through with the verification process, there's no setting to say "remove them after X days". So we have to run a batch job.

If I screw up one parameter, instead of deleting only unconfirmed users, I could delete all users. I have two redundant checks, first when the query is run to get the unconfirmed users, and then again checking the user's confirmed status before deleting them. And then I check one more time further down in the code for good measure. Not because I think the result will be different, but just in case one of the lines of code is altered somehow.

I put BIG LOUD comments everywhere of course. But it still terrifies me.



Soft deletes reduces the scariness




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