ZooKeeper & etcd
Distributed coordination services for leader election, configuration management, and distributed locking. The consensus primitives that underpin distributed systems.
This technology guide is part of the full calibration library.
Staff interviews are decided on nuance — tradeoff framing, ownership boundaries, and failure anticipation. This technology guide covers the depth that separates Senior from Staff+.
What's inside this technology guide
Practice & Reference
- •Why This Matters
- •The 60-Second Pitch
- •Why Coordination Services Exist
- •ZooKeeper — Architecture & Internals
- •etcd — Architecture & Internals
- •ZooKeeper vs etcd — Head-to-Head
- •Common Use Cases
- •Scaling & Performance
- •Failure Modes & Recovery
- •When to Use — And When Not To
- •Interview Application — Staff-Level Plays
- •In the Wild
- •Practice Drill
- •Quick Reference Card