Service Communication and API Design Questions
Design and specify APIs and interservice communication patterns for systems that must scale. Topics include REST design and best practices, API versioning and deprecation strategies, backward compatibility and API evolution, contract design between services, choosing protocols such as gRPC versus HTTP for internal or external communication, security and authentication patterns at the API level, performance and scalability considerations, observability and monitoring of service interactions, and strategies for evolving interfaces without breaking consumers.
MediumSystem Design
0 practiced
Design an asynchronous integration pattern for integrating with third-party systems: compare using webhooks, polling, and message queues. For each option, outline expected delivery semantics (at-least-once, at-most-once), reliability strategies, acknowledgement models, and how you would secure and monitor these integrations for a paying enterprise client.
HardTechnical
0 practiced
Design a versioning strategy that avoids URL-level versions and instead applies field-level semantic versioning using API headers and feature flags. Explain how you would support multiple field versions concurrently, route traffic for canarying new field semantics, and document changes for SDK consumers. As a Solutions Architect, include rollback measures.
MediumSystem Design
0 practiced
A large client wants a versioning strategy that minimizes breakage and reduces fragmentation. Compare and recommend URL versioning, header versioning, media-type/content negotiation, and semantic field-level versioning. Provide a migration plan for moving from v1 URL versioning to a less intrusive strategy with minimal client changes.
HardTechnical
0 practiced
Design a strategy to handle API schema evolution when consumers expect backward compatibility but new business needs require field renames and changes in semantics. Include translation layers, deprecation notices, compatibility flags, and automated migration tools you would propose as a Solutions Architect.
EasyTechnical
0 practiced
Design a simple status code policy for HTTP APIs used by your clients. As a Solutions Architect, list recommended uses of 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, and 5xx status codes and describe when to return 202 vs 200 for async operations and 409 vs 422 for conflict/validation. Include how to include machine-readable error payloads and correlation IDs for tracing.
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