Ixl·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen
Jul 2026
Technical screen for a Software Engineer role at IXL covering Kubernetes debugging, probe configuration, and a Python ETL code review. Pretty dense for a single session but the questions were practical and grounded in real on-call scenarios rather than whiteboard puzzles.
- You're on call and a pod enters CrashLoopBackOff. Walk through how you'd systematically debug it and what commands you'd use.
- What are the most common root causes you'd check first when a container keeps restarting in Kubernetes?
- Explain liveness, readiness, and startup probes. What problem does each solve and when would you use each?
- Given a Python ETL script that reads a file, processes each line, and inserts rows one by one into SQL, what issues would you flag in a code review?
“This is where I felt most comfortable.”