Explain what happens when opening a website
MercorSoftware Engineer · Technical Screen
Last updated
This question evaluates understanding of the end-to-end web request lifecycle, including DNS resolution, TCP/TLS handshakes, HTTP(S) exchanges, CDN and load balancer behavior, server-side handling, and the browser rendering pipeline.
When a user types https://www.amazon.com into a browser and presses Enter, what happens end-to-end?
Cover the major steps across the browser, DNS, TCP/TLS, HTTP(S), CDNs/load balancers, server-side handling, and how the page is rendered in the browser.
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