3 ms·

It's one of my favorite interview questions. I only know the answer because it happened to us once with 5M users on the affected version before it was discover

It's one of my favorite interview questions. I only know the answer because it happened to us once with 5M users on the affected version before it was discovered. It's a very good question to see how people react in a mostly hopeless situation. The only candidate out of 100s to logically get to the solution (or essentially it) was one of the best engineesr I've hired and worked with. "So you and your team just released a tested and reviewed build, did gradual rollout and numbers looked good - so out to general public it goes. All clients update over the following days. QA discovers, upon testing the next release, a latent bug that prevents the current version from connecting to the update service and running the updater. How do you resolve this?"

willj 8y ago
I'm super interested to know the answer to this question. I imagine it's more interesting than just uninstall/reinstall.
- judge2020 8y ago
  As said in the other answer, hopefully the interviewee asks how it's unable to connect. If it's an Oculus situation [0] where the signing certificate is expired and you don't have a backdoor like Firefox studies, the only way is a reinstall or a "fix utility" [1]. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16541235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16541235 1: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17095414/oculus-rift-software-fix-certificate-expiry https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17095414/oculus-rift-softw...
xfitm3 8y ago
I’d love to hear how this was resolved.
dhimes 8y ago
My first thought is to email a link to a fix, including a reason and an apology.
dannyw 8y ago
I would find any source of displaying a message to the end user. Most applications have some data that comes from a remote server, whether it's on the home screen, any kind of announcements screen, server-sourced error messages, etc. I would use that to communicate an update is available, with a handy link.
westmeal 8y ago
Start screaming and rollback?
Waterluvian 8y ago
"I would give my two weeks notice." So how'd I do in the interview? ;)
bouncycastle 8y ago
Need more info, why it couldn't connect? Eg, if it was just a typo in the domain name, just register the domain new name or adjust the DNS record ;-)
- TheRealPomax 8y ago
  Yep, that's how interview questions work. If someone immediately recommends a solution, that's someone who probably needs to grow in their field a little before being given a position where this is a potentially real situation.
  - Waterluvian 8y ago
    And as an interviewer I don't really want an answer. What I really want is to watch your brain grind away at a problem. So ask these questions, even rhetorically. Talk through all. Your angles of attack.
    - tgtweak 7y ago
      A good signal is when the question is: Who else is on my team?
mmsimanga 8y ago
You make the next version a major upgrade. Similar to Firefox 53?
ben_jones 8y ago
To play around with a non-technical solution I would consider rushing out a "Version 2.0" of the application that accomplishes the following (if possible within a <24 hour window): 1) Has a functioning update service that fixes the original problem 2) A quick re-skin/theme-change to i.e. a more "modern" version of its original design 3) Whatever performance/security improvements you can cobble together quickly or were in the pipe already I would do this because I see this as also a business/finance/sales/marketing problem as a technical one. Assuming this bricked the core product, you have to save the business first, then save the quarter, then the week, then the day. I think this would work because it is much easier to get a user to re-download a version 2.0 with performance/security/design improvements then it is to download almost anything else (imo). Again, this is assuming no saner solution exists. Interested to hear your accepted answer though.
- bennofs 7y ago
  I might not be your target user base, but that's exactly the opposite of what I would like as an user. I am already forced to update because the current version does not work correctly. Forcing UI/design/any major change (especially ones that are "quickly cobbled together" and thus might be buggy) on me in that situation is not nice. I am then left with the choice between a) non working software or b) a major update I might not like. Perhaps it's good from the company POV because that's how you make sure your users migrate to the new version even if it is still inferior/buggier.
  - ben_jones 7y ago
    You’re definitely right, my suggestion is business friendly (theoretically) and likely user-hostile depending on how well it’s executed.

willj 8y ago

I'm super interested to know the answer to this question. I imagine it's more interesting than just uninstall/reinstall.

judge2020 8y ago
As said in the other answer, hopefully the interviewee asks how it's unable to connect. If it's an Oculus situation [0] where the signing certificate is expired and you don't have a backdoor like Firefox studies, the only way is a reinstall or a "fix utility" [1]. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16541235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16541235 1: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17095414/oculus-rift-software-fix-certificate-expiry https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17095414/oculus-rift-softw...

xfitm3 8y ago

I’d love to hear how this was resolved.

dhimes 8y ago

My first thought is to email a link to a fix, including a reason and an apology.

dannyw 8y ago

I would find any source of displaying a message to the end user. Most applications have some data that comes from a remote server, whether it's on the home screen, any kind of announcements screen, server-sourced error messages, etc. I would use that to communicate an update is available, with a handy link.

westmeal 8y ago

Start screaming and rollback?

Waterluvian 8y ago

"I would give my two weeks notice." So how'd I do in the interview? ;)

bouncycastle 8y ago

Need more info, why it couldn't connect? Eg, if it was just a typo in the domain name, just register the domain new name or adjust the DNS record ;-)

TheRealPomax 8y ago
Yep, that's how interview questions work. If someone immediately recommends a solution, that's someone who probably needs to grow in their field a little before being given a position where this is a potentially real situation.
- Waterluvian 8y ago
  And as an interviewer I don't really want an answer. What I really want is to watch your brain grind away at a problem. So ask these questions, even rhetorically. Talk through all. Your angles of attack.
  - tgtweak 7y ago
    A good signal is when the question is: Who else is on my team?

mmsimanga 8y ago

You make the next version a major upgrade. Similar to Firefox 53?

ben_jones 8y ago

To play around with a non-technical solution I would consider rushing out a "Version 2.0" of the application that accomplishes the following (if possible within a <24 hour window): 1) Has a functioning update service that fixes the original problem 2) A quick re-skin/theme-change to i.e. a more "modern" version of its original design 3) Whatever performance/security improvements you can cobble together quickly or were in the pipe already I would do this because I see this as also a business/finance/sales/marketing problem as a technical one. Assuming this bricked the core product, you have to save the business first, then save the quarter, then the week, then the day. I think this would work because it is much easier to get a user to re-download a version 2.0 with performance/security/design improvements then it is to download almost anything else (imo). Again, this is assuming no saner solution exists. Interested to hear your accepted answer though.

bennofs 7y ago
I might not be your target user base, but that's exactly the opposite of what I would like as an user. I am already forced to update because the current version does not work correctly. Forcing UI/design/any major change (especially ones that are "quickly cobbled together" and thus might be buggy) on me in that situation is not nice. I am then left with the choice between a) non working software or b) a major update I might not like. Perhaps it's good from the company POV because that's how you make sure your users migrate to the new version even if it is still inferior/buggier.
- ben_jones 7y ago
  You’re definitely right, my suggestion is business friendly (theoretically) and likely user-hostile depending on how well it’s executed.