What security considerations should be taken into account when implementing delays in PHP scripts using client-side technologies like JavaScript?

When implementing delays in PHP scripts using client-side technologies like JavaScript, it is important to consider security implications such as potential abuse by malicious users to overload the server with unnecessary requests. To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to implement server-side rate limiting to control the frequency of requests from a single client.

// Implement server-side rate limiting to control the frequency of requests from a single client
$limit = 10; // Set the limit to 10 requests per minute
$key = 'client_ip_' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$count = apcu_fetch($key);
if ($count === false) {
    $count = 1;
} else {
    $count++;
}
apcu_store($key, $count, 60); // Store the count for 1 minute
if ($count > $limit) {
    http_response_code(429); // Return 429 Too Many Requests status code
    exit('Rate limit exceeded. Please try again later.');
}