Q1
Walk me through how you would design a system to handle rate limiting for an API that serves millions of requests per day. What data structures and algorithms would you use, and how would you handle distributed scenarios?
Why they ask this:* They want to assess your understanding of scalability, distributed systems design, and practical problem-solving at the scale relevant to mid-level engineers.
Q2
Explain the difference between SQL and NoSQL databases. Describe a situation where you chose one over the other in a past project and why that decision made sense.
Why they ask this:* This evaluates your ability to make architectural trade-offs, understand data modeling, and justify technical decisions based on real-world requirements.
Q3
How do you approach debugging a memory leak in a production application? Walk through the tools and strategies you would use.
Why they ask this:* They're assessing your troubleshooting methodology, familiarity with profiling tools, and ability to diagnose and resolve critical issues independently.
Q4
Describe your experience with CI/CD pipelines. What tools have you used, and how have you optimized them to reduce deployment time or improve reliability?