Async work that survives failure instead of losing it.
Name it
Say what this problem really is, professionally — the concept + when it bites. practice the framing →
Explain it out loud
Say it in your own words — but hit these: queue · worker · exponential backoff · idempotent · dead-letter queue · at-least-once
checking microphone…
Edge cases — say + handle each
Say the trade-off
“You take eventual consistency and more operational surface (queue depth, DLQ, worker lag) in exchange for absorbing spikes and degrading gracefully.”
checking microphone…
Answer the follow-up
How do you make a worker idempotent?
Catch the classic bug
Spot the wrong implementation in <60s. open the bug drill →