Explain SRE architecture and troubleshooting scenarios
Overview
This question evaluates a candidate's competency in SRE architecture and reliability engineering, covering Kubernetes fundamentals, pod failure troubleshooting, SLO/SLA/SLI reasoning, multi-layer latency diagnosis, and SQL versus NoSQL trade-offs within the System Design domain.
Kubernetes, Reliability, and Data Store Concepts (Technical Screen)
Context: Assume you operate a high-scale, latency-sensitive microservices platform running on Kubernetes. Answer the following practical questions.
1) Kubernetes Building Blocks
- Explain the difference between a Pod and a Deployment in Kubernetes.
- Describe the role of a Service.
2) Debugging a Pod That Fails to Start
List concrete steps and typical kubectl commands you would use to troubleshoot a Pod that is Pending, ImagePullBackOff, CrashLoopBackOff, OOMKilled, or failing health probes.
3) SLO, SLA, and SLI
- Define and contrast SLO, SLA, and SLI.
- If the actual error rate exceeds the SLO, what actions would you take and how would you prioritize them?
4) Elevated Request Latency in a Distributed System
Outline a structured troubleshooting approach across the network, load balancer, database, cache, and the service itself. Include:
- Specific metrics to check at each layer.
- Concrete experiments to run to isolate the bottleneck.
5) SQL vs NoSQL
Compare SQL and NoSQL data stores and describe scenarios where NoSQL is the better fit.
Solution
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