You are asked to build an internal platform so 30 product teams can deploy services to Kubernetes on their own. How would you design it?
What the interviewer wants to hear
- Golden paths: templates for new services with CI/CD, observability built in
- Self-service through GitOps and a developer portal
- Multi-tenancy: namespaces, RBAC, quotas, network policies
- Guardrails with policy as code instead of manual approvals
- Treat the platform as a product: feedback, docs, metrics
Model answer
I would treat the platform as a product, with the product teams as customers. First I would interview teams to understand their pain. Then I would build golden paths: a service template, for example through Backstage, that creates a repo with a Dockerfile, a CI pipeline, Helm or Kustomize manifests, dashboards and alerts already wired. Deployments go through GitOps with Argo CD, so teams self-serve by merging pull requests. For multi-tenancy, each team gets namespaces with RBAC, resource quotas, limit ranges and default-deny network policies. Instead of manual reviews, guardrails are policy as code with Kyverno or OPA Gatekeeper, for example requiring resource requests, non-root containers and signed images. Shared concerns like ingress, certificates, secrets and observability are provided centrally. I would measure adoption, lead time and developer satisfaction, and keep good documentation.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed hard round and get scored on every answer.
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