The Bill Item Nobody Predicted
A cloud bill triples with no change in traffic or instance count. Where do you look first, and why is egress so often the answer?
Practical scenario
The monthly bill went from €9K to €31K with flat traffic and no new instances. Compute is unchanged; two line items grew — NAT gateway data processing and inter-zone data transfer — after a new analytics worker fleet shipped.
What it tests
Answer it out loud first. The guide below stays closed until you ask for it, on purpose.
- Whether the candidate knows data movement is metered differently from compute
- Whether they can enumerate the boundaries that charge
- Whether they attack cost architecturally rather than by shopping for discounts
Reading a strong answer is not the same as producing one. Commit to what you would say, then compare.