How do you monitor website performance and escalate issues?

Long Answer

Monitoring websites in real time is essential for ensuring reliability and quick response to failures. My approach combines uptime monitoring, performance tracking, error logging, and structured escalation. Each layer provides a signal that, when combined, creates a full picture of site health.

1) Uptime checks

I configure synthetic checks from multiple regions using Pingdom, UptimeRobot, or Cloudflare. These include not only simple HTTP pings but also transactional checks (login, checkout). They detect outages and regional DNS or SSL issues.

2) Performance metrics

Performance impacts user experience and SEO. I track Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, FID) using Lighthouse CI or SpeedCurve, plus backend metrics like TTFB, CPU, and DB query latency via Datadog or New Relic. Establishing performance budgets (e.g., LCP < 2.5s) prevents regressions after deployments.

3) Error tracking

Frontend and backend errors are collected with Sentry, Rollbar, or ELK stacks. Errors are grouped by frequency and severity, then linked to release versions for faster triage. Server logs integrate with dashboards to correlate spikes with deploys or load surges.

4) Automated alerts

Monitoring feeds into alert systems (PagerDuty, Opsgenie). Alerts are severity-based: low-level warnings go to Slack, critical outages escalate via phone/SMS. To avoid alert fatigue, I configure thresholds and suppress duplicates. Each alert links to a runbook with first-response steps.

5) Escalation workflow

When a critical issue occurs, the process is:

1. Detection – automated alert or manual report.
   
2. First response – on-call engineer investigates logs and dashboards.
   
3. Escalation – if unresolved, notify senior engineer or team lead.
   
4. Incident call – for SEV1 issues, bring in cross-functional team.
   
5. Post-mortem – after resolution, document root cause and fixes.
   

6) Governance and testing

Dashboards unify uptime, metrics, and errors in one view. Load tests before big events validate that monitoring thresholds are correct. Post-incident reviews help refine alerts, ensuring faster recovery next time.

By combining real-time visibility with a clear escalation ladder, I minimize downtime, protect user experience, and keep teams aligned during critical incidents.

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Table

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Common Mistakes

• Relying only on uptime pings, ignoring slow performance or partial outages.
  
• Alerting on every warning, causing alert fatigue.
  
• Not validating SSL/domain expirations, leading to avoidable downtime.
  
• Treating monitoring as static instead of evolving with the app.
  
• Escalating without runbooks, leaving responders unsure what to do.
  
• Ignoring error monitoring, relying solely on logs.
  
• Lack of post-mortems, so the same incidents repeat.
  
  

Sample Answers

Junior:
“I set up uptime monitoring with Pingdom and check response times. I use Sentry to capture errors and get alerts to Slack so the team can react quickly.”

Mid:
“I add multi-regional probes and dashboards with performance metrics like LCP and DB latency. Errors are logged in Sentry and linked to releases. Alerts go to Slack for warnings and PagerDuty for criticals, with runbooks guiding escalation.”

Senior:
“I design a layered system: synthetic uptime, Core Web Vitals, backend traces, and grouped errors. Alerts are severity-routed, reducing noise. Escalation follows runbooks: first responder → team lead → incident bridge. Every SEV1 ends with a post-mortem to refine monitoring and processes.”

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Evaluation Criteria

Strong answers highlight layered monitoring (uptime, performance, errors) and structured escalation. Candidates should mention specific tools and explain why thresholds and runbooks matter. Red flags: relying on uptime alone, vague escalation, or ignoring user-facing performance. The best responses show how to balance detection with actionable alerts, prevent fatigue, and maintain clear handoff during incidents.

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Preparation Tips

• Practice setting up uptime probes with a free tool like UptimeRobot.
  
• Run Lighthouse CI to track Core Web Vitals across builds.
  
• Configure a demo Sentry project, trigger errors, and review reports.
  
• Simulate alert escalation: send warnings to Slack, criticals to SMS.
  
• Write a short runbook for a sample incident (e.g., 500 errors spike).
  
• Review SEV classifications (SEV1, SEV2, SEV3) and escalation ladders.
  
• Be ready to explain how you prevent alert fatigue while staying responsive.
  
  

Real-world Context

A SaaS platform once relied only on uptime pings. Checkout worked but was slow, causing 20% drop in conversions before detection. After adding Core Web Vitals and error tracking, issues surfaced within minutes. Another firm ignored SSL expiry, leading to a 3-hour outage; automation fixed this. A media company cut response time from 20 minutes to 5 by integrating PagerDuty escalation. Post-mortems reduced noise alerts by 40%, improving team focus. These cases show that combining monitoring layers with disciplined escalation has measurable business impact.

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Key Takeaways

• Use multi-layer monitoring: uptime, performance, errors.
  
• Track Core Web Vitals and backend metrics, not just availability.
  
• Route alerts by severity to avoid fatigue.
  
• Follow clear escalation steps with runbooks.
  
• Post-mortems refine monitoring and prevent repeated failures.
  
  

Practice Exercise

Scenario:
You manage a support environment for a large e-commerce site. A sudden traffic spike causes slow checkout, and errors appear sporadically.

Tasks:

1. Configure uptime probes for homepage and checkout.
   
2. Add Lighthouse CI to measure Core Web Vitals on each deploy.
   
3. Connect Sentry for frontend and backend errors.
   
4. Route alerts: warnings → Slack, SEV1 outages → PagerDuty SMS.
   
5. Document a runbook for checkout failures.
   
6. Simulate escalation: on-call investigates, team lead steps in if unresolved, SEV1 incident call within 10 minutes.
   
7. Conduct a post-mortem to refine thresholds.
   
   

Deliverable:
A monitoring and escalation setup where issues are detected within minutes, alerts reach the right people, and recovery is guided by documented processes.