# A nightly load failed halfway, then the automatic retry ran the whole job again and inserted the fir

Canonical URL: <https://datadriven.io/problems/a-nightly-load-failed-halfway-then-the-automatic-retry-ran-2f362eae>

Domain: Pipeline Design · Difficulty: medium

## Problem

A nightly load failed halfway, then the automatic retry ran the whole job again and inserted the first half's rows twice. Design the job so a retry after partial failure is safe.

## Related

- [All practice problems](https://datadriven.io/problems)
- [Mock interview mode](https://datadriven.io/interview/a-nightly-load-failed-halfway-then-the-automatic-retry-ran-2f362eae)
- [System Design Interview Questions](https://datadriven.io/data-engineering-system-design)
- [Data Engineering Interview Prep Guide](https://datadriven.io/data-engineer-interview-prep)
- [Daily Challenge](https://datadriven.io/daily)

---

Source: DataDriven (https://datadriven.io). 100% free data engineering interview prep. Live code execution against Postgres 16, Python 3.11, and Spark sandboxes. No paywall, no premium tier, no signup gate.