Top 30 Site Reliability Engineer Interview Questions and Answers [Updated 2025]

Start with the architecture overview

Identify key components like data collectors and storage

Discuss visualization tools and alerting mechanisms

Mention scalability and redundancy features

Highlight integration with incident response tools

Mention specific programming languages like Python, Go, and Bash.

Include tools commonly used in SRE like Terraform, Ansible, and Jenkins.

Explain how you use these languages and tools in day-to-day tasks.

Highlight your experience in writing scripts for monitoring and deployment.

Be prepared to discuss a specific project where you applied these skills.

Start by defining TCP and UDP clearly.

Highlight the key differences in reliability and connection status.

Provide examples of applications for each protocol.

Mention real-world scenarios where you would prefer one over the other.

Keep explanations simple and focused on practical implications.

Implement database replication across multiple nodes to ensure data availability.

Use automated failover mechanisms to switch to replica databases during outages.

Set up load balancing to distribute database requests evenly across multiple servers.

Regularly back up data and have a recovery plan for quick restoration.

Monitor system performance and health to proactively address potential issues.

Identify key performance indicators relevant to system reliability.

Mention metrics related to latency, error rates, and uptime.

Discuss the importance of resource utilization metrics like CPU, memory, and disk I/O.

Include system-specific metrics that indicate service health, like request rates and queue lengths.

Emphasize the role of alerting and monitoring tools in tracking these metrics.

Focus on specific challenges like scalability, reliability, and cost management.

Discuss the complexity of automation and orchestration in a large system.

Mention the importance of monitoring and alerting to handle incidents.

Consider the implications of cloud provider dependencies and outages.

Talk about security challenges, especially with data across multiple locations.

Highlight automatic scaling to handle variable workloads

Mention self-healing capabilities for failing components

Discuss deployment rollbacks for safer updates

Point out resource optimization for system stability

Include improved management of service dependencies

Encourage collaboration between development and operations teams.

Implement monitoring and alerting tools to track system health.

Adopt automation to reduce manual processes and increase reliability.

Establish service level objectives (SLOs) and metrics to measure performance.

Conduct regular post-mortems to improve processes and prevent future issues.

Explain the concept of CI/CD and its components.

Discuss how automated testing in CI/CD helps catch issues early.

Mention the role of version control in maintaining deployment history.

Highlight the impact of frequent, small deployments on reliability.

Wrap up with the importance of monitoring post-deployment.

Start by defining load balancing and its basic function.

Explain how it distributes traffic across multiple servers.

Mention redundancy and failover as key reliability features.

Discuss how load balancing can reduce latency and improve response times.

Conclude with the impact of load balancing on user experience and system efficiency.

Integrate security practices into the development lifecycle from the start.

Use automated tools for testing security without manual interventions.

Prioritize scalable security solutions that do not impact performance.

Monitor system metrics to identify potential trade-offs between security and reliability.

Conduct regular assessments and adapt security approaches based on system feedback.

Define SLIs clearly as metrics that indicate service performance.

Explain the role of SLIs in measuring user experience and system reliability.

Discuss how SLIs help set expectations and guide service improvements.

Mention the importance of aligning SLIs with business objectives.

Highlight that SLIs are part of a broader SLO and SLA framework.

Log at appropriate levels of detail, using INFO for general messages and ERROR for issues.

Include timestamps and unique request IDs for all logs to track requests through systems.

Make logs structured (e.g., JSON format) to facilitate searching and filtering.

Capture relevant context in logs, such as user IDs, session IDs, and node information.

Ensure logs are stored securely and retained according to compliance needs.

Define an error budget as the acceptable amount of error or downtime within a service level objective.

Explain how it's calculated based on service level indicators and service level agreements.

Discuss the importance of balancing reliability and feature development using the error budget.

Highlight that teams can use the error budget to prioritize activities that improve reliability.

Mention that exceeding the error budget usually leads to a freeze on new features until reliability improves.

Start by providing context about the outage and its impact.

Outline the specific steps you took to diagnose the issue.

Emphasize collaboration with your team and communication with stakeholders.

Describe the resolution process and what tools or methods you used.

Conclude with lessons learned and improvements made to prevent future outages.

Identify a specific project where collaboration occurred

Explain the problem or challenge faced with the system

Describe your role and contributions in the collaboration

Mention the tools or practices used to facilitate communication

Share the outcome and impact on system reliability

Establish a clear communication channel before an incident occurs.

Assign roles in advance for who communicates updates to the team and stakeholders.

Use simple and direct language to avoid misunderstandings.

Keep all parties informed of changes in the situation regularly.

Post-incident, review communication effectiveness to improve for future incidents.

Identify the specific reliability strategy you disagreed on.

Explain the rationale behind your position clearly.

Listen to your team member's perspective and acknowledge their points.

Suggest a compromise or a way to test both strategies.

Highlight the outcome and what you learned from the experience.

Identify a specific service and the reliability issue you addressed.

Explain your role in leading the initiative with clear actions you took.

Include metrics or results that demonstrate the improvement.

Mention collaboration with team members or stakeholders.

Reflect on the lessons learned and how it shaped future work.

Choose a specific example that highlights your ability to foresee reliability issues.

Describe the context and the potential impact of the risk you identified.

Explain the actions you took to mitigate the risk.

Share the outcomes of your actions, including any metrics or improvements.

Reflect on what you learned from the experience.

Identify a specific instance where a change occurred.

Explain how you recognized the need for adaptation.

Describe the steps you took to adjust to the new technology or process.

Highlight any support or resources you utilized during the transition.

Mention the outcome and what you learned from the experience.

Start with the context of the mentorship situation.

Describe the specific reliability best practices you focused on.

Share a concrete example of how you taught these practices.

Mention the impact this mentoring had on the junior engineer's work.

Conclude with any lessons learned or follow-up actions.

Identify a specific skill or technology that is relevant to SRE.

Explain how you learned this skill, such as through a course or self-study.

Describe a situation where this skill directly improved your work performance.

Highlight any measurable impact or result from using this skill.

Keep the response focused on your personal experience and growth.

Check the monitoring dashboard for current metrics related to the application.

Identify and review recent changes or deployments that may correlate with the issue.

Examine application logs to pinpoint specific error messages and their frequency.

Conduct tests to reproduce the issue if possible, to gather more data on the failures.

Implement a fix or rollback changes if the issue is identified and confirmed.

Assess current server metrics and load patterns immediately

Scale up resources or instances in anticipation of the event load

Implement caching strategies to reduce server load

Use load balancing to distribute traffic evenly

Prepare a rollback plan in case of unexpected failures

Identify critical components of the application and their dependencies

Define Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO)

Establish a backup strategy, including frequency and location of backups

Design failover mechanisms, including active/passive setups or multi-region deployments

Test the disaster recovery plan regularly to ensure effectiveness and update where necessary

Identify the manual task clearly and document the steps involved.

Evaluate current tools and technologies that can assist in automation.

Write a plan outlining the automation process, including tools, languages, and methods.

Implement a prototype or proof of concept to test the automation.

Gather feedback and iterate on the solution to improve reliability and efficiency.

Assess the potential impact of the new feature on system reliability.

Implement monitoring and alerting to track system performance post-deployment.

Involve stakeholders in a risk assessment before the feature launch.

Plan for a rollback strategy in case the new feature causes issues.

Perform thorough testing including load testing and chaos engineering.

Assess the current system capacity and bottlenecks

Identify necessary architectural changes or optimizations

Implement load testing to simulate increased usage

Plan for scaling resources efficiently, such as horizontal scaling

Communicate effectively with the executive about feasibility and timelines

Check application logs for any warnings or unexpected behavior.

Use monitoring tools to analyze CPU, memory, and response time metrics.

Identify any recent changes to the service or its dependencies.

Conduct load testing to determine how the service behaves under stress.

Review database queries and optimize any that are slow or inefficient.