Senior Manager, Product Design - Platform Engineering

Netflix

How would you implement a stack using another data structure?

Netflix

High-Level Design for Zero-Downtime Live Production Systems Imagine you're tasked with designing a live production system that requires zero downtime during deployments and updates. This system handles a large volume of requests and is critical to the business. Let's consider a scenario: Scenario: You are building a service that provides real-time stock quotes to users. The service needs to be highly available and scalable to handle peak loads. Deployments must not interrupt the service, ensuring users always receive the latest data. Questions to address in your design: High-Level Architecture: Describe the overall architecture of the system. Include key components, their responsibilities, and how they interact. Deployment Strategy: Detail the deployment strategy you would use to achieve zero downtime. Explain the steps involved in deploying new versions of the service. Load Balancing: How would you distribute traffic across different instances of the service to ensure high availability and prevent overload? Monitoring and Rollback: What monitoring tools and metrics would you use to detect issues during deployment? Describe the rollback strategy in case of a failed deployment. Data Consistency: How would you ensure data consistency across different instances of the service during updates? Scaling: How would you scale the system horizontally to handle increased traffic? Explain each of these areas with consideration to both the design and the practical steps required for running such a system in live production. Consider specific technologies and tools where appropriate to illustrate your understanding. This question aims to assess your understanding of designing and operating highly available systems, your knowledge of deployment strategies, and your ability to handle real-world challenges in a production environment.

Netflix

Tell me about a time you faced a significant ethical dilemma. What made it difficult, and what was the outcome? Describe the situation in detail, explaining the context and the stakeholders involved. Explain your thought process as you evaluated the ethical considerations. What alternatives did you consider, and why did you choose the path you did? What was the result of your actions, and what did you learn from the experience? For example, perhaps you discovered a colleague was misrepresenting their work or claiming credit for someone else's contributions. Or maybe you identified a potential safety issue with a product or service that your company was preparing to launch. Discuss how you navigated the situation, ensuring that your actions aligned with your personal and professional values, while also considering the potential impact on your team, the company, and other stakeholders. Explain how you communicated your concerns and the steps you took to reach a resolution, reflecting on whether you would approach the situation differently in the future.