Code Room
On-callMediumoc-p067
Subject Incident responseLevel Mid–Senior~20 minCommon in Reliability & on-call interviewsIndustries Technology, Software development

Question

Something's wrong but you're not sure how bad it is. How do you decide what severity to assign and whether to declare a major incident?

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.

Diagram & narrate the incident
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Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.