Tell me about a difficult technical challenge you faced in the past, and how your learnings would be relevant to Viber

Question Analysis

The question is asking you to describe a past experience where you encountered a significant technical challenge. The focus is on how you approached the problem, the solution you implemented, and the lessons you learned from the experience. Importantly, you should relate these learnings to how they can be applied to Viber, highlighting your understanding of Viber’s technical environment and aligning your experience with their needs. The question is behavioral in nature, so using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method will help structure your response effectively.

Answer

Situation: In my previous role at XYZ Tech, I was part of a team responsible for optimizing our mobile application’s performance. We noticed that our application was experiencing significant latency issues, especially under high traffic conditions, which was affecting user satisfaction.

Task: My task was to identify the root cause of the latency and implement a solution to improve the app's performance and scalability, ensuring a smooth user experience during peak usage times.

Action: I began by conducting a thorough analysis of our system architecture and usage patterns. I identified that the bottleneck was due to inefficient database queries and a lack of proper load balancing. I collaborated with our database team to optimize the queries, reducing the response time by indexing frequently accessed data. Additionally, I implemented a load balancer to distribute incoming traffic evenly across servers, enhancing the system’s ability to handle higher loads.

Result: As a result of these actions, we achieved a 40% reduction in latency and improved the application’s ability to handle twice the previous traffic load without performance degradation. This led to increased user satisfaction and a notable rise in positive app reviews.

Relevance to Viber: My experience with optimizing application performance is directly relevant to Viber, a platform that handles millions of messages and calls daily. Understanding how to efficiently manage large-scale traffic and improve system responsiveness is crucial for maintaining Viber’s reputation for reliability and speed. My learnings in database optimization and load balancing can contribute to enhancing Viber’s infrastructure, ensuring seamless communication for its users even during peak times.