On-callHardoc-p012

Subject Incident responseLevel Senior–Staff~20 minCommon in Reliability & on-call interviewsIndustries Technology

Question

Your Redis cache cluster just went down, and the database — now taking traffic it used to absorb — is about to fall over too. What do you do?

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.

Learn the concepts

Diagram & narrate the incident

Loading whiteboard…

Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.