How do you resolve a circular dependency between two providers in NestJS?

Difficulty: 6/10

forwardRef, module design, dependency injection

Use forwardRef() on both sides of the circular dependency. However, the real fix is to refactor and extract the shared logic into a third provider to eliminate the cycle entirely.

Circular dependencies occur when Provider A depends on Provider B and Provider B depends on Provider A. NestJS cannot resolve these without a hint because neither can be instantiated first.

Using forwardRef() to break the cycle

Best practices:

1
forwardRef() is a workaround, not a solution.
2
Prefer refactoring — extract the shared logic into a third, independent service.
3
Apply forwardRef() on both sides of the dependency.
4
Also applies at the module level when two modules import each other.

Scenario Questions

0-2 years experience

2-5 years experience

1During a feature rollout you see an error like "Cannot resolve dependencies of the XProvider" caused by a circular import. Walk me through how you would debug and fix it.

Follow-up Questions