The edge of your stack
Nginx Interview Questions
Reverse proxying, load balancing, TLS, caching, rate limits and the configuration details that cause outages.
40 questions10 easy22 medium8 hard0/40 learned
01What is Nginx and what problems does it solve?Easynginx · reverse proxy · web server02How does Nginx's architecture work?Mediumarchitecture · event loop · workers03What do the master and worker processes do?Mediummaster process · worker process · reload04Where does Nginx keep its configuration and files after installation?Easyinstallation · file layout · packages05How is an Nginx configuration structured?Easyconfiguration · contexts · directives06What is a server block and how does Nginx choose one?Easyserver blocks · virtual hosts · server_name07What are location blocks and which modifiers exist?Mediumlocation · routing · modifiers08How does Nginx choose between competing locations?Mediumlocation matching · precedence · routing09How do you configure Nginx as a reverse proxy?Mediumreverse proxy · proxy_pass · headers10How does load balancing work in Nginx?Mediumload balancing · upstream · round robin11What is an upstream block and how do you tune it?Mediumupstream · keepalive · backend pool12How do you serve static files efficiently and safely?Easystatic files · root · alias13How does try_files work?Mediumtry_files · spa · fallback14When should you use rewrite and when should you use return?Hardrewrite · return · redirects15How do you implement redirects correctly?Easyredirects · status codes · https16How do you configure TLS termination in Nginx?Mediumtls · ssl · certificates17How do you enable HTTP/2 and what does it change?Mediumhttp/2 · alpn · multiplexing18How do you configure gzip compression?Easygzip · compression · performance19How does browser and HTTP caching work with Nginx?Mediumcaching · cache-control · etag20How do you configure proxy caching in Nginx?Mediumproxy cache · cache key · upstream21How does rate limiting work in Nginx?Mediumrate limiting · limit_req · 42922How do you limit concurrent connections per client?Mediumlimit_conn · connections · slow clients23How do you restrict access by IP or path?Easyaccess control · allow · deny24How do you add HTTP basic authentication?Easybasic auth · htpasswd · authentication25How do you add and forward headers in Nginx?Mediumheaders · add_header · proxy_set_header26How do you handle CORS in Nginx?Mediumcors · preflight · headers27How do you proxy WebSocket connections through Nginx?Mediumwebsockets · upgrade · proxy28How do you stream responses such as SSE through Nginx?Hardstreaming · sse · buffering29How do access and error logs work in Nginx?Easylogs · error_log · access_log30How do you design a useful access log format?Mediumlog_format · observability · json logs31How do you debug a failing Nginx request in production?Harddebugging · 502 · error log32How do you tune Nginx for production performance?Hardperformance · tuning · throughput33How do you size worker_connections and worker_processes?Mediumworker_connections · capacity · file descriptors34How do you tune client and proxy buffers?Mediumbuffers · client_max_body_size · proxy_buffer_size35How should you set Nginx timeouts?Mediumtimeouts · slowloris · upstream36How do health checks work with Nginx upstreams?Hardhealth checks · upstream · failover37How would you do a blue-green deployment with Nginx?Hardblue-green · deployment · reload38How do you harden an Nginx deployment?Hardsecurity · hardening · csp39How do you run Nginx in Docker correctly?Mediumdocker · containers · nginx image40What are Nginx production best practices?Hardbest practices · operations · reliability
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