Troubleshooting should follow the request or startup path rather than random restarts. Events, status and logs reveal different stages.
Before you start
You should understand Pods, Deployments and Services. Read desired configuration separately from observed cluster state. Use a development cluster when trying changes, and inspect events and status rather than assuming that an accepted manifest means the workload is ready to serve traffic.
The practical goal is to reason through this situation: For a pending Pod inspect scheduling; for a crash inspect termination reason and previous logs. Read the walkthrough first, then try the interview exercise before opening its answer. The important part is explaining the decision and its consequences, rather than remembering a definition alone.
Step-by-step walkthrough
Step 1: Locate the first symptom
Pending, crashing and unreachable Pods imply different investigation paths.
Step 2: Follow the request chain
Check external routing, Service selection, readiness and application behavior in order.
Step 3: Preserve evidence
Read events, termination details and previous logs before random restarts.
Worked scenario
For a pending Pod inspect scheduling; for a crash inspect termination reason and previous logs.
A failed HTTP request may originate from an Ingress rule, empty Service endpoints or the application itself. Identify the first broken boundary with concrete observations. Restarting a healthy Pod cannot repair a selector typo and may erase useful evidence of the actual failure.
Common mistake
Restarting immediately can destroy useful failure evidence.
Verify the behavior
Record evidence at each boundary and explain why the chosen change addresses the first failure.
Interview exercise
Investigate a failed HTTP request.
Answer and reasoning
Check external routing, Service endpoints, Pod readiness and application behavior in order, recording the first broken boundary.
Continue learning
Compare the scenario with the Kubernetes interview questions and test your understanding with the Kubernetes MCQs. For terminology and implementation details, consult the reference material.