Code Room
On-callMediumoc-p094
Subject Incident responseLevel Senior~20 minCommon in Reliability & on-call interviewsIndustries Technology, Software development

Question

Every hour on the hour, your service has a brief latency spike and a load surge on the database. You suspect cache expiry. How do you confirm and fix it?

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.