Code RoomError budget burn response
HardPrep Room Coding #18

Error budget burn response

Vibe & agenticAI agents & automationReliability & on-callSenior–Staff~17 min

Design an agent that watches error budgets across your services and acts on burn rate. The controversial part: should it be able to freeze releases on its own, or only recommend a freeze? Take a position and defend it. Cover what it monitors, how it avoids crying wolf on noisy short windows, and how you'd validate its judgment against historical incidents. Then convince a room of product managers that this agent is good for them, not just for reliability.

Implement
burn_rate_decision(samples: list[float], fast_window: int, slow_window: int, fast_threshold: float, slow_threshold: float) → str
Examples
in[[6,8,10,12,14,16],2,6,6,3]out"recommend_freeze"
in[[0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,9,11],2,6,6,3]out"recommend_freeze"
in[[0.5,0.75,0.5,1,0.5,0.25],2,6,6,3]out"no_action"
What a strong answer looks like

Turn the fuzzy goal into a bounded agent task. Say what the agent reads, what it may do on its own versus draft for a human, and what it must never touch. Then earn the trust: how you’d verify it before rollout, and the pitch (the problem, what you built, why it matters).

0:00 of about 17 min

Agent build: design the agent in plain language (or narrate it). The coach grades the decomposition, the guardrails, the verification plan, and the pitch.

Which questions mattered is sealed until you submit. Telling you now would just be handing over the edge cases.