CI/CD · Ship safely, repeatedly
What checks should run after deployment?
Short answer
Run smoke tests on critical paths, synthetic journeys, and SLO checks for errors and latency, then compare against the baseline. Verify in a defined window and roll back automatically if the criteria fail.
A successful deployment only proves the process completed. Post-deployment verification asks whether the system is doing its job for real traffic, which is a different question from whether the pods started.
- Smoke tests: unauthenticated health and a few authenticated critical requests
- Synthetic journeys: scripted user flows run from outside the cluster
- SLO checks: error ratio, latency and saturation compared with the baseline
- Business checks: order completion, signup success or payment authorization
- Dependency checks: database, queue and third-party integrations
- A defined verification window with automatic rollback or rollback recommendation
curl --fail --silent --show-error https://api.example.com/health
curl --fail --silent --show-error --oauth2-bearer $SMOKE_TOKEN https://api.example.com/v1/checkout/healthFollow-ups you should expect
Interviewers use these to check whether the first answer was understanding or memorisation.
- 1What is the difference between a smoke test and a synthetic journey?
- 2How long should a post-deployment verification window be?
- 3What should trigger an automatic rollback?
- 4How do you verify a deployment with low traffic?
Say it in the interview
After deployment I run smoke tests on health and critical authenticated paths, then synthetic journeys and SLO comparisons against the baseline. I include business signals and dependency checks where they matter. The verification window has to match the failure mode. A slow memory leak will not show up in thirty seconds, so if the criteria fail, rollback should be automatic or at least strongly recommended.
Use this as a model, not a script. Saying it in your own words is what makes it survive follow-up pressure.
Related questions
Reading is step one
Now say it out loud.
Understanding an answer and delivering it under pressure are different skills. Rehearse this topic in a live CI/CD mock interview and get scored feedback on depth, clarity and confidence.