DevOps Interview DropAdvanced TierScenario+50 XP on read
How do you know whether an issue is infrastructure or application?
Core Summary
The shape of the metrics answers this before you have to think hard. Errors up with latency and resources flat is almost always application. Latency up with a resource saturated is infrastructure. And whether one pod is affected or all of them is usually the single most decisive fact available.
Hints
Hint 1: Look at the time-series shape, not one number
Hint 2: Application issues usually affect error rate; infrastructure affects latency and resources
Hint 3: One bad pod is infrastructure; a config bug is application
Reported in interviews at Amazon, Google, Uber