Site Reliability Engineer · 5-8 Years
Architecture, scalability, reliability, security, cost, and cross-team ownership.
Try each answer before revealing the suggested coaching answer.
25 questions
01Design a scalable and secure approach for SRE principles in a mid-sized engineering organization.
A system-design answer
Say this first: SRE principles should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply SRE principles, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → SRE principles → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
02What trade-offs would you consider while choosing a solution for SLI SLO SLA?
A system-design answer
Say this first: An SLO is a reliability target for a user-visible service. Its error budget is the amount of unreliability allowed before reliability work takes priority over further change.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply SLI SLO SLA, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → SLI SLO SLA → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
03How would you improve reliability, security, and cost around error budget?
A system-design answer
Say this first: An SLO is a reliability target for a user-visible service. Its error budget is the amount of unreliability allowed before reliability work takes priority over further change.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply error budget, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → error budget → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
04How would you review an existing implementation of toil reduction and identify design gaps?
A system-design answer
Say this first: toil reduction should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply toil reduction, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → toil reduction → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
05How would you handle failure scenarios related to observability pillars at scale?
A system-design answer
Say this first: The important point about observability pillars is how an engineer recognizes the unsafe path early and prevents it from becoming customer impact.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply observability pillars, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- Start with containment and evidence. Changing several variables at once makes the incident harder to understand.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → observability pillars → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
06Design a scalable and secure approach for golden signals in a mid-sized engineering organization.
A system-design answer
Say this first: golden signals should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply golden signals, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → golden signals → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
07What trade-offs would you consider while choosing a solution for alert design?
A system-design answer
Say this first: alert design should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply alert design, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → alert design → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
08How would you improve reliability, security, and cost around incident response?
A system-design answer
Say this first: incident response should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply incident response, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → incident response → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
09How would you review an existing implementation of postmortem culture and identify design gaps?
A system-design answer
Say this first: postmortem culture should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply postmortem culture, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → postmortem culture → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
10How would you handle failure scenarios related to on-call readiness at scale?
A system-design answer
Say this first: The important point about on-call readiness is how an engineer recognizes the unsafe path early and prevents it from becoming customer impact.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply on-call readiness, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- Start with containment and evidence. Changing several variables at once makes the incident harder to understand.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → on-call readiness → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
11Design a scalable and secure approach for capacity planning in a mid-sized engineering organization.
A system-design answer
Say this first: capacity planning should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply capacity planning, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → capacity planning → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
12What trade-offs would you consider while choosing a solution for load shedding?
A system-design answer
Say this first: load shedding should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply load shedding, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → load shedding → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
13How would you improve reliability, security, and cost around rate limiting?
A system-design answer
Say this first: rate limiting should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply rate limiting, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → rate limiting → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
14How would you review an existing implementation of circuit breaker and identify design gaps?
A system-design answer
Say this first: circuit breaker should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply circuit breaker, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → circuit breaker → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
15How would you handle failure scenarios related to graceful degradation at scale?
A system-design answer
Say this first: The important point about graceful degradation is how an engineer recognizes the unsafe path early and prevents it from becoming customer impact.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply graceful degradation, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- Start with containment and evidence. Changing several variables at once makes the incident harder to understand.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → graceful degradation → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
16Design a scalable and secure approach for Kubernetes troubleshooting in a mid-sized engineering organization.
A system-design answer
Say this first: The important point about Kubernetes troubleshooting is how an engineer recognizes the unsafe path early and prevents it from becoming customer impact.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply Kubernetes troubleshooting, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- Start with containment and evidence. Changing several variables at once makes the incident harder to understand.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Concrete check
kubectl rollout status deployment/<service> --timeout=90sEvidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → Kubernetes troubleshooting → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
17What trade-offs would you consider while choosing a solution for latency debugging?
A system-design answer
Say this first: The important point about latency debugging is how an engineer recognizes the unsafe path early and prevents it from becoming customer impact.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply latency debugging, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- Start with containment and evidence. Changing several variables at once makes the incident harder to understand.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → latency debugging → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
18How would you improve reliability, security, and cost around availability design?
A system-design answer
Say this first: availability design should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply availability design, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → availability design → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
19How would you review an existing implementation of DR and failover and identify design gaps?
A system-design answer
Say this first: DR and failover should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply DR and failover, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → DR and failover → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
20How would you handle failure scenarios related to automation for reliability at scale?
A system-design answer
Say this first: The important point about automation for reliability is how an engineer recognizes the unsafe path early and prevents it from becoming customer impact.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply automation for reliability, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- Start with containment and evidence. Changing several variables at once makes the incident harder to understand.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → automation for reliability → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
21Design a scalable and secure approach for release risk management in a mid-sized engineering organization.
A system-design answer
Say this first: release risk management should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply release risk management, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → release risk management → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
22What trade-offs would you consider while choosing a solution for chaos engineering?
A system-design answer
Say this first: chaos engineering should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply chaos engineering, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → chaos engineering → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
23How would you improve reliability, security, and cost around runbooks?
A system-design answer
Say this first: runbooks should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply runbooks, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → runbooks → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
24How would you review an existing implementation of service ownership and identify design gaps?
A system-design answer
Say this first: service ownership should be explained through its purpose, the boundary where it applies, and the evidence that shows it is working.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply service ownership, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- State the constraint that could change your decision, such as scale, data sensitivity, recovery target, or team ownership.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → service ownership → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
25How would you handle failure scenarios related to reliability governance at scale?
A system-design answer
Say this first: The important point about reliability governance is how an engineer recognizes the unsafe path early and prevents it from becoming customer impact.
Use a real scenario
Imagine a customer-facing API that must survive a regional dependency failure. The team must decide how to apply reliability governance, verify the result, and explain the user impact. For a Site Reliability Engineer, attach the explanation to a runbook and recovery test result.
Show judgment
- define boundaries, ownership, failure modes, and the operational feedback loop.
- Start with containment and evidence. Changing several variables at once makes the incident harder to understand.
- Call out a broad outage or an untested recovery path and the control that reduces it.
Evidence to mention
Track availability, recovery time, and cost per request. Say what baseline you compared against, what would trigger a rollback or escalation, and who owns the follow-up.
request or change → guardrail / validation → reliability governance → observable result → owner reviewPractice prompt: Show how the team uses runbook and recovery test result rather than relying on an informal agreement.
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Further reading
These are original practice questions and suggested answers. Adapt them to your own work and explain evidence, trade-offs, and limitations.