Debugging Linux on EC2 | Dataford Interview Questions

Tell me about a time you debugged a production Linux issue on an EC2 instance using tools like grep, sed, and awk, and how you managed the change across a fleet.

Write a function that parses a list of Linux log lines, extracts the affected instance IDs, and returns the fleet rollout order for a fix. Input is a list of strings, each line may contain an instance ID, a severity, and a timestamp. Output the unique instance IDs in the order they should be patched, with the most severe and earliest incidents first.

Constraints

1 <= len(log_lines) <= 10^4
Each line contains zero or more whitespace-separated tokens
Instance IDs start with 'i-'
Severity is one of critical, high, medium, low when present
Timestamps are non-negative integers when present

Function Signature

def rollout_order(log_lines):

Your question is Debugging Linux on EC2. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.

Problem

Tell me about a time you debugged a production Linux issue on an EC2 instance using tools like grep, sed, and awk, and how you managed the change across a fleet.

Constraints

1 <= len(log_lines) <= 10^4
Each line contains zero or more whitespace-separated tokens
Instance IDs start with 'i-'
Severity is one of critical, high, medium, low when present
Timestamps are non-negative integers when present

Function Signature

def rollout_order(log_lines):

Your question is Debugging Linux on EC2. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.