Technology Stack and Tooling Questions
Focuses on familiarity with common technologies and the rationale for choosing them. Includes knowledge of databases both relational and nonrelational, caching layers, message queues, containerization and orchestration, monitoring and logging tools, continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines, and cloud versus on premise tradeoffs. Candidates should understand the role each tool plays in a system, when to adopt a technology based on system requirements and constraints, and tradeoffs in terms of operational complexity, cost, performance and team capability.
HardTechnical
89 practiced
A codebase contains multiple ORMs and frequent N+1 query regressions. As an EM, propose a pragmatic three-phase plan to standardize database access across teams: selection, migration, enforcement (linters, code review rules), and regression detection in CI and production. Include metrics to measure progress.
HardTechnical
95 practiced
Two engineering organizations being merged use different observability stacks (Prometheus+Grafana+Loki vs Splunk+NewRelic). As EM, produce a migration plan to unify logs, metrics, and traces with minimal data loss and minimal double-instrumentation. Cover data normalization, retention/cost tradeoffs, federation vs full migration, and validation steps.
HardTechnical
95 practiced
You must choose between self-hosted Kafka and a managed service (Confluent Cloud / AWS MSK). Build a decision matrix that evaluates cost (including hidden ops cost), scalability, operational complexity, latency, security/compliance, SLAs, and team expertise. Recommend a choice for a team of 6 engineers operating at 2 billion messages/day.
EasyTechnical
96 practiced
You are deciding between Postgres and MongoDB for a new service. As an EM, list concrete criteria you would use to choose one over the other: data model, transactional requirements, indexing/query patterns, scaling, backup/recovery, operational cost, and team skills. Give one brief example workload that favors each.
HardTechnical
95 practiced
A globally distributed engineering org uses different CI runners and multiple container registries across teams and time zones. As EM, propose a consolidation strategy that minimizes downtime, preserves artifacts and image immutability, addresses authentication and authorization, and improves overall throughput and visibility. Provide a phased migration approach and roll-back plan.
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