Sample Answer
Situation: During a peak traffic window, our p95 latency on a Node.js/Express API jumped from ~180ms to ~400ms while error rates stayed <0.5%. Task: Quickly identify the bottleneck and restore SLA (<250ms p95) without causing downtime. Action: First, I check traffic patterns and recent deploys in Datadog/Grafana (RPS, instance CPU/memory, autoscaling events) to rule out overload or bad release. Second, I inspect per-endpoint latency and downstream dependency timings (PostgreSQL, Redis, external APIs) using APM traces to see where time is spent. Third, I examine database/query metrics (slow query log, connection pool saturation, lock waits). Result: In one incident, this sequence exposed a new unindexed filter causing 3× slower queries; adding an index brought p95 back to 190ms within 20 minutes.
Keywords
On your resume you mention working on a cross-functional project (e.g., involving multiple teams or stakeholders). Describe a situation from that project where priorities conflicted—how did you navigate the trade-offs and what was the final outcome?
Walk me through a recent multi-channel digital marketing campaign you managed end-to-end. How did you set objectives, choose channels, allocate budget, and measure success?
In your resume you note improving or optimizing [a process, KPI, or metric]. What specific baseline metrics did you start from, what steps did you personally take, and how did you verify that the improvement was due to your changes rather than external factors?
Based on your hydrology and irrigation engineering background, explain how you would estimate the irrigation water requirement for a kharif crop in a semi-arid region of Gujarat. Walk me through each step: from reference evapotranspiration estimation, crop coefficient selection, effective rainfall calculation, to arriving at canal discharge for a given command area.
In your civil engineering studies, what specific design coursework or project work did you complete related to irrigation channels or canals (e.g., design of lined/unlined canals, distributaries, minors)? Describe one such design in detail, including how you determined discharge, permissible velocity, section dimensions, and lining choice for Gujarat-type soil and climate conditions.