On-callMediumoc-p042

Subject Incident responseLevel Mid–Senior~20 minCommon in Reliability & on-call interviewsIndustries Technology, Software development

Question

A third-party API you depend on started returning 429s — you're hitting their rate limit — and the feature that calls it is failing for users. How do you respond?

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

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Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.