500 Internal Server Error

What It Means

A 500 error is a generic "something went wrong" response. The server hit an error it wasn't prepared to handle. It's the server's fault, not the client's.

Common Causes

• Unhandled exceptions — Code threw an error that wasn't caught
• Database connection failure — Can't connect to the database
• Configuration errors — Missing environment variables, bad config files
• Memory/resource limits — Server ran out of memory or hit resource limits
• Permission issues — Server process can't access needed files
• Bad deployment — New code has bugs, missing dependencies

How to Debug

1. Check server logs — The actual error is usually in the logs
2. Check recent deploys — Did this start after a deployment?
3. Check dependencies — Is the database up? External APIs responding?
4. Check resource usage — CPU, memory, disk space
5. Try to reproduce — What specific request triggers it?

Common Log Locations

# Nginx
/var/log/nginx/error.log

# Apache
/var/log/apache2/error.log

# Node.js (PM2)
~/.pm2/logs/app-error.log

# Docker
docker logs container_name

Prevention

• Implement proper error handling and logging
• Use health check endpoints to detect issues early
• Set up uptime monitoring to catch 500s immediately
• Use staging environments before deploying to production
• Implement circuit breakers for external dependencies

For Visitors

If you're seeing this error as a user, it's not your fault. Try:

• Refreshing the page
• Waiting a few minutes and trying again
• Checking the service's status page
• Contacting support if the issue persists