Interviewer: “How would you handle a situation where a critical API request occasionally takes too long, leading to timeouts in a high-traffic production environment?”

Good developer:
“You can increase the timeout duration and implement retries with exponential backoff. Also, check if there’s a way to optimize the API endpoint itself, like reducing the data being processed or returned.”

Great Developer:
“First, you should identify why the request is taking too long. Is it due to high server load, inefficient processing, or network issues? Increasing the timeout and implementing retries with exponential backoff can provide quick relief, but they might not address the root cause. Consider optimizing the API by reducing payload size, implementing pagination, or using asynchronous processing for non-critical tasks. Load balancing and caching responses for repeated queries could also help reduce load. Additionally, ensure you’re monitoring the API performance to detect patterns and identify bottlenecks early. If the issue persists, you might need to rethink the architecture, possibly offloading heavy tasks to background jobs or microservices.”