A downstream tax API has been failing for 15 minutes
A medium Pipeline Design mock interview question on DataDriven. Practice with AI-powered feedback, real code execution, and a hire/no-hire decision.
- Domain
- Pipeline Design
- Difficulty
- medium
Interview Prompt
A downstream tax API has been failing for 15 minutes. Every worker keeps issuing requests; each waits the full 30-second timeout before failing; the pipeline burns compute on a service that cannot serve. The section's pattern is the circuit breaker: a wrapper around the downstream call that tracks failure rate and, when threshold is crossed, refuses to call for a cool-down. Trial requests after the cool-down decide whether to close again or stay open. Open the breaker by adding one between the worker and the tax API whose name states the three states and their transition parameters.
How This Interview Works
- Read the vague prompt (just like a real interview)
- Ask clarifying questions to the AI interviewer
- Write your pipeline design solution with real code execution
- Get instant feedback and a hire/no-hire decision