API and Full Stack Coding Patterns Questions
Beyond pure algorithms, be prepared for problems that combine algorithmic thinking with API design, rate limiting, caching strategies, or distributed system concepts. Understanding how a coding solution fits into a larger fullstack architecture.
MediumTechnical
77 practiced
Explain eventual consistency vs strong consistency for API responses backed by replicated data stores. As an SRE, when is eventual consistency acceptable for an API, and how would you describe the consistency guarantees in your API contract and tests?
MediumTechnical
94 practiced
A microservice returns stale cache-backed search results after an index rebuild. As SRE, propose an invalidation strategy that scales across services: compare versioned keys, cache tags, and event-driven invalidation. Choose one approach, justify it, and outline implementation steps including monitoring.
EasyTechnical
94 practiced
Propose three SLIs for a public REST API and write concrete SLOs for each (e.g., availability, latency, error-rate). For each SLO set a measurement window, SLI calculation (e.g., p99 latency < 300ms over 30 days), and suggest alert burn-rate thresholds and paging thresholds an SRE should use.
EasyTechnical
80 practiced
Sketch a minimal Go SDK helper that makes authenticated API calls with automatic retries and JSON decoding. Provide function signatures and pseudocode that show where you inject tokens, how you perform retries with backoff, context timeouts, and structured error handling.
HardTechnical
70 practiced
A library upgrade introduces a subtle p99 latency regression in your API. As an SRE, outline a detailed investigation plan: how to use distributed traces, flamegraphs, CPU/GC/heap profiling, dependency latencies, and deployment artifacts to isolate the cause. Describe immediate mitigations and long-term fixes.
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