OCSP responder timeout blocks handshakes
Your services validate peer certs in mTLS and, per a new security policy, now perform online revocation checking (OCSP) on every handshake. At 13:00 — no cert expired, no policy/cert change — a broad swath of internal mTLS handshakes start slowing to multi-second and then failing intermittently across many service pairs. Dashboards: peer certs are all valid and unexpired; the failures correlate with timeouts reaching an external OCSP responder URL; that responder is slow today. CPU/memory normal everywhere. How do you triage and mitigate?
What a strong answer looks like
Stop the bleeding first (mitigate), then form hypotheses from real signals. Separate root cause from symptom, communicate status as you go, and close with what prevents a repeat.
0:00 of about 40 min
Which questions mattered is sealed until you submit. Telling you now would just be handing over the edge cases.
Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.