Interview Questions/Technical Deep Dive/JVM GC Strategy and Performance Tuning
AdvancedTechnical
5 min

JVM GC Strategy and Performance Tuning

JVMPerformanceGC
Advertisement
Interview Question

Your Java services show p99 latency spikes during peak traffic. How would you analyze and tune JVM garbage collection to reduce pause times?

Key Points to Cover
  • Collect GC logs and enable detailed GC metrics
  • Choose appropriate collector (G1/ZGC/Shenandoah) based on latency goals
  • Tune heap sizing, region sizes, and pause-time goals
  • Profile allocation hotspots; reduce object churn and large arrays
  • Validate improvements via load tests and compare p95/p99
Evaluation Rubric
Captures GC evidence and metrics30% weight
Selects suitable GC for workload30% weight
Applies targeted GC/heap tuning20% weight
Verifies latency improvement under load20% weight
Hints
  • 💡Look for allocation rate, promotion failures, humongous objects.
Potential Follow-up Questions
  • When would you prefer ZGC over G1?
  • How do container limits affect GC?
Advertisement