Interview Questions/Phone Screen/HTTP Keep-Alive & Connection Pooling
IntermediatePhone
2 min

HTTP Keep-Alive & Connection Pooling

HTTPPerformanceNetworking
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Interview Question

What is HTTP keep-alive and why does connection pooling improve performance?

Key Points to Cover
  • Keep-alive reuses TCP connections for multiple requests
  • Reduces handshake/latency and resource usage
  • Pooling limits concurrent sockets and improves throughput
Evaluation Rubric
Defines keep-alive correctly34% weight
Explains latency/overhead reduction33% weight
Describes pooling benefits/limits33% weight
Hints
  • 💡TCP handshakes and TLS handshakes are expensive.
Potential Follow-up Questions
  • How does HTTP/2 change this?
  • What about connection limits per host?
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