A hang suggests missing progress; a refusal suggests an explicit error. Packet evidence distinguishes firewall behavior from routing failures and closed listeners. Then rule counters, not eyeballs, finger the guilty line.
Updated Sep 2026 · Grounded in researched DevOps, SRE and platform engineering interview loops, written to a senior-engineer editorial bar, and never padded to hit a word count.
A hang suggests missing progress; a refusal suggests an explicit error. Packet evidence distinguishes firewall behavior from routing failures and closed listeners. Then rule counters, not eyeballs, finger the guilty line.
Nothing here yet. Say how you would answer it.
