intermediate · queues
Two Million Messages and Growing
A queue is 2 million messages deep and growing. What do you do?
Practical scenario
An order-processing queue is at 2.1 million messages, up from a normal 5,000. Arrival rate is unchanged from last week. The team is debating how many workers to add.
What it tests
- • Whether the candidate does the arrival-versus-service arithmetic
- • Knowledge of the levers available
- • Whether they know depth is not the user-facing signal