AdvancedTechnical
5 min
WebSockets vs gRPC Streaming at Scale
NetworkingRealtimeAPIs
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Interview Question
Contrast WebSockets and gRPC streaming for real-time communication. How do you scale and secure each?
Key Points to Cover
- WebSockets: bidirectional over a single TCP; needs sticky or state sharing
- gRPC streaming: HTTP/2 multiplexing, schema contracts, strong typing
- Scale via shard keys, connection fan-out, and gateway proxies
- Security with mTLS, auth tokens, and per-connection rate limits
Evaluation Rubric
Compares protocols and use cases35% weight
Explains large-scale connection handling25% weight
Describes auth and mTLS considerations20% weight
Addresses observability and backpressure20% weight
Hints
- 💡Consider proxy layer: Envoy/NGINX for both.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- ⚠️Assuming WebSockets automatically handle load balancing and state management across distributed systems.
- ⚠️Neglecting to implement proper authentication and authorization beyond basic TLS for WebSockets.
- ⚠️Underestimating the complexity of managing HTTP/2 connections and gRPC streams in large-scale gRPC deployments.
- ⚠️Failing to define clear schema contracts in gRPC, leading to integration issues and runtime errors.
- ⚠️Not implementing backpressure mechanisms in either technology, leading to resource exhaustion on the server side under heavy load.
Potential Follow-up Questions
- ❓How do you manage connection fan-out?
- ❓How to handle mobile network churn?
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