Online Game Cheating: Detection, Prevention, Enforcement, and Trust
Context
Assume you are the Product Manager for a competitive online game with real-time matches, ranked leaderboards, and an in-game economy. The game is cross-platform (mobile/PC), operates at scale, and must react to cheating both in real time and via batch analysis.
Questions
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Detection
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What key signals would you instrument and monitor to detect cheating?
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What data pipelines are required to capture, process, and score those signals in real time and offline?
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Which algorithms and modeling approaches would you use?
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Prevention
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Why do players cheat?
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Which product and policy interventions would discourage cheating?
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Enforcement and Trust
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Once cheating is identified, how would you enforce restrictions (graduated responses, communication, recovery)?
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If enforcement actions frustrate some users (including false positives), how would you address concerns and rebuild trust?