Black Friday order backlog

Incident drill · Intermediate

What is happening

Alert: checkout error rate 35% at 08:00, the minute the Black Friday deals went live in the app.

Orders arrive about six times faster than normal for a minute or so. Every order is written straight to the database from the app servers, and both are at 100%.

Fix it so no order is lost in the rush and the backlog is cleared within 45 seconds of the peak ending.

You have 4 changes and 7 minutes. A change is adding or removing a part or a connection, or changing a part’s settings. Fewer changes and less time score higher.