Traffic management (routing, splitting) in Microservices - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is traffic routing in microservices?

Traffic routing is the process of directing incoming requests to specific microservice instances or versions based on rules like URL path, headers, or user location.

beginner

Explain traffic splitting in microservices.

Traffic splitting divides incoming requests between different versions or instances of a microservice, often used for gradual rollouts or A/B testing.

intermediate

Why use traffic splitting during deployments?

It helps test new versions with a small user group, reduces risk of failures, and allows quick rollback if issues arise.

intermediate

Name two common tools or technologies used for traffic management in microservices.

Service meshes like Istio and API gateways like Kong or NGINX are popular tools for routing and splitting traffic.

intermediate

What is a canary deployment in the context of traffic management?

A canary deployment sends a small percentage of traffic to a new version to monitor its behavior before full rollout.

What does traffic routing primarily depend on in microservices?

A Request attributes like URL or headers

B Database schema

C CPU usage of microservices

D User's screen resolution

Traffic routing uses request attributes such as URL paths or headers to decide where to send requests.

Which scenario best describes traffic splitting?

A Sending all traffic to one microservice version

B Dividing traffic between multiple microservice versions

C Blocking traffic from unknown users

D Encrypting traffic between services

Traffic splitting divides requests among different versions or instances.

What is the main benefit of canary deployments?

A Gradual testing of new versions with limited users

B Faster database queries

C Improved UI design

D Reducing server costs

Canary deployments allow testing new versions with a small user group before full rollout.

Which tool is commonly used for traffic management in microservices?

A Docker Compose

B MySQL

C React

D Istio

Istio is a service mesh that helps manage traffic routing and splitting.

Traffic routing rules can be based on which of the following?

A Operating system version

B Microservice memory size

C User location

D Time of day only

Routing can consider user location among other request attributes.

Describe how traffic routing and traffic splitting differ and how they work together in microservices.

Think about directing requests versus dividing requests.

Explain the benefits and risks of using traffic splitting during a microservice deployment.

Consider why splitting traffic helps and what could go wrong.