On-callMediumoc-p097

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

Question

Your error-rate dashboards are green, but a feature is clearly broken for users. You discover a downstream service returns HTTP 200 with an error payload in the body instead of an error status. 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.