Downstream service degraded
Your service's latency dashboard shows requests getting slow and some returning 504 Gateway Timeout. Drilling in, the slowness is concentrated on endpoints that call one downstream service; endpoints that don't call it are fast. The downstream's own status page shows it's degraded. You didn't deploy. Your service's threads/connections are filling up waiting on it. How do you triage and protect your service?
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 20 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.