Sample Answer
(S) In a similar case, a marketing feature was projected to triple write volume to our Postgres cluster during a seasonal event. (T) With a tight two-week timeline, my task was to ensure the backend could handle the spike without breaching our 99.9% availability target. (A) I first modeled expected QPS and row growth using historical traffic and product forecasts. I ran load tests against a staging environment with production-like data, gradually increasing write load to 3–4x baseline. Based on bottlenecks (replication lag and checkpoint I/O), we tuned Postgres settings, added a read replica for reporting, and introduced a write queue via a message broker for non-critical writes, smoothing bursts. I also implemented idempotency keys on the new endpoints to prevent duplicate writes from retries and added dashboards and alerts on replication lag, write latency, and error rates. (R) During the campaign, peak writes reached ~2.7x baseline. P95 write latency stayed under 80 ms, replication lag stayed below 3 seconds, and we had zero database-related incidents. The campaign exceeded revenue goals by ~18% without backend instability.
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.
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?