AdvancedTechnical
5 min
Service Mesh Trade-offs
Service MeshNetworkingObservability
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Interview Question
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a service mesh (e.g., Istio, Linkerd) in production.
Key Points to Cover
- Pros: traffic shaping, mTLS, retries, observability
- Cons: added complexity, latency overhead, operational cost
- When justified: complex microservices environments needing policy enforcement
Evaluation Rubric
Clearly outlines benefits30% weight
Acknowledges drawbacks30% weight
Explains when adoption makes sense20% weight
Considers operational complexity20% weight
Hints
- 💡Think mTLS, retries, and sidecar overhead.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- ⚠️Underestimating the operational complexity and required expertise for deployment and ongoing management.
- ⚠️Ignoring the latency overhead introduced by sidecar proxies, especially in high-throughput or latency-sensitive applications.
- ⚠️Over-engineering by adopting a service mesh when the complexity of the microservices architecture doesn't warrant it.
- ⚠️Failing to invest in adequate training for engineering teams to effectively utilize and troubleshoot the service mesh.
- ⚠️Not having a clear strategy for integrating observability data from the service mesh into existing monitoring and alerting systems.
Potential Follow-up Questions
- ❓How do you compare service mesh vs API gateway?
- ❓What are alternatives?
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