Effective Work Sample Exercises for Hiring a Site Reliability Engineering Manager

The Site Reliability Engineering Manager role sits at a critical intersection of technical expertise and leadership capability. This position requires individuals who can not only understand complex systems architecture and reliability principles but also effectively lead teams through challenging incidents, mentor engineers, and drive continuous improvement. Traditional interviews often fail to reveal a candidate's true capabilities in these areas, as theoretical knowledge doesn't always translate to practical application.

Work samples provide a window into how candidates actually approach the real challenges they'll face in the role. For an SRE Manager, these exercises should evaluate both technical acumen and leadership skills in realistic scenarios. By observing candidates as they work through complex problems, design systems, mentor team members, and handle incidents, hiring teams can gain invaluable insights that standard interviews simply cannot provide.

The exercises outlined below are designed to simulate the key responsibilities of an SRE Manager: incident response, system design, team leadership, and automation strategy. Each exercise creates an opportunity to observe how candidates think on their feet, communicate under pressure, apply technical knowledge, and demonstrate leadership qualities. These observations will help you identify candidates who not only understand SRE principles but can effectively implement them in your organization.

By incorporating these work samples into your hiring process, you'll be able to make more informed decisions based on demonstrated abilities rather than self-reported experience. This approach reduces hiring risk and increases the likelihood of finding a candidate who will excel in driving reliability, fostering team growth, and achieving your organization's technical objectives.

Activity #1: Incident Response Simulation

This exercise simulates a critical production incident, allowing you to evaluate how candidates lead under pressure, coordinate response efforts, and apply technical troubleshooting skills. Incident management is a core responsibility for SRE Managers, making this exercise particularly relevant for assessing their ability to maintain service reliability while guiding their team through stressful situations.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a detailed scenario of a significant production incident (e.g., service outage, data loss risk, security breach) with multiple potential causes and affected systems.
• Provide documentation about the affected systems, including architecture diagrams, metrics dashboards, and recent deployment information.
• Assemble a small team (2-3 people) to role-play as SRE team members who will be directed by the candidate during the exercise.
• Designate someone to play the role of a concerned executive who will periodically ask for updates.
• Allow 45-60 minutes for the full exercise, including the post-mortem discussion.
• Prepare a timeline of how the incident unfolds, including new information that will be revealed at specific intervals.

Directions for the Candidate:

• You will be leading an incident response for a critical production issue that has just been detected.
• Review the initial alert and system documentation provided to understand the affected systems.
• Work with your team to investigate the issue, determine the root cause, and implement a resolution.
• Delegate tasks to team members as appropriate and coordinate the response effort.
• Provide regular status updates to stakeholders.
• After resolving the incident, lead a brief post-mortem discussion to identify what went well, what could be improved, and preventive measures for the future.

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the exercise, provide feedback on the candidate's technical approach to troubleshooting and their leadership during the incident.
• Highlight one aspect of their incident management that was particularly effective.
• Suggest one area for improvement in their approach or communication.
• Give the candidate 10 minutes to explain how they would adjust their approach based on this feedback in a similar future incident.

Activity #2: Reliability System Design

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to design scalable, resilient systems that meet specific reliability targets. It tests their technical knowledge of cloud infrastructure, containerization, monitoring, and other SRE principles while also assessing how they balance reliability requirements with resource constraints.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a case study of a fictional service with specific reliability requirements (e.g., 99.99% uptime, global availability, specific latency targets).
• Include business context such as user impact, traffic patterns, and growth projections.
• Provide constraints such as budget limitations or technology stack requirements.
• Allocate 60 minutes for the design phase and 30 minutes for presentation and questions.
• Have technical stakeholders from both development and operations teams present for the presentation.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the service requirements and constraints provided.
• Design a system architecture that meets the reliability targets while working within the given constraints.
• Create a diagram of your proposed architecture.
• Identify potential failure modes and explain how your design mitigates them.
• Define appropriate SLIs and SLOs for the service.
• Outline a monitoring and alerting strategy for the system.
• Present your design to the stakeholders, explaining your decisions and trade-offs.
• Be prepared to answer questions about your approach.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on the technical soundness of the design and the clarity of the presentation.
• Highlight one particularly strong aspect of their design approach.
• Suggest one area where the design could be improved or where additional considerations should be made.
• Allow the candidate 15 minutes to revise one aspect of their design based on the feedback.

Activity #3: Team Coaching Role Play

This exercise assesses the candidate's ability to mentor and develop SRE team members, a critical skill for any engineering manager. It evaluates their coaching approach, communication style, and ability to provide constructive feedback while building trust and fostering growth.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a scenario involving a fictional SRE team member who needs coaching in a specific area (e.g., on-call anxiety, technical skill gap, communication issues with developers).
• Provide background information about the team member, including their experience level, strengths, and areas for improvement.
• Include details about recent incidents or situations that highlight the coaching need.
• Designate someone to play the role of the team member being coached.
• Allow 30 minutes for the coaching session.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the information about the team member and the situation requiring coaching.
• Prepare for a one-on-one coaching session to address the identified issues.
• During the role play, demonstrate your coaching approach by:
• Building rapport with the team member
• Asking effective questions to understand their perspective
• Providing constructive feedback
• Collaboratively developing an improvement plan
• Setting clear expectations and follow-up steps
• Focus on both addressing the immediate issue and supporting the team member's long-term growth.

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the role play, provide feedback on the candidate's coaching approach and communication style.
• Highlight one aspect of their coaching that was particularly effective.
• Suggest one area where their coaching approach could be improved.
• Give the candidate 10 minutes to reflect on the feedback and explain how they would adjust their coaching approach in a follow-up session with this team member.

Activity #4: Automation Strategy Planning

This exercise evaluates the candidate's ability to identify opportunities for automation and develop a strategic plan to improve operational efficiency. It tests their technical knowledge of automation tools and practices while also assessing their strategic thinking and ability to prioritize initiatives for maximum impact.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a detailed case study of a fictional SRE team with specific operational challenges and manual processes.
• Include information about the current technology stack, team size and skills, and existing automation.
• Provide metrics on team workload, incident frequency, and time spent on manual tasks.
• Include constraints such as budget limitations or organizational priorities.
• Allow 45 minutes for strategy development and 30 minutes for presentation.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the information about the team's current state and challenges.
• Identify opportunities for automation that would improve reliability and efficiency.
• Develop a strategic plan that includes:
• Prioritized automation initiatives with estimated impact
• Required resources and technologies
• Implementation timeline and milestones
• Success metrics and measurement approach
• Potential challenges and mitigation strategies
• Present your automation strategy to the stakeholders, explaining your rationale for prioritization and expected outcomes.
• Be prepared to answer questions about your approach.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on the strategic thinking demonstrated and the technical feasibility of the proposed automation.
• Highlight one particularly valuable automation initiative they identified.
• Suggest one area where their strategy could be improved or where additional considerations should be made.
• Allow the candidate 15 minutes to refine their prioritization or address a specific challenge based on the feedback.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should we allocate for these work sample exercises?

Each exercise is designed to take between 1-2 hours total, including preparation, execution, and feedback. For the incident response simulation and system design exercises, you may want to allocate up to 2 hours. The coaching role play and automation strategy planning can typically be completed in 1-1.5 hours. We recommend spreading these exercises across different interview stages rather than attempting to complete multiple exercises in a single day.

Should we provide these exercises to candidates in advance?

For the system design and automation strategy exercises, it's beneficial to provide the basic scenario 24 hours in advance so candidates can prepare thoughtfully. The incident response simulation and coaching role play are better conducted without advance notice to assess how candidates perform in realistic scenarios where they need to think on their feet.

How should we evaluate candidates across these different exercises?

Create a structured scorecard for each exercise that aligns with the key competencies for an SRE Manager: technical knowledge, leadership ability, communication skills, strategic thinking, and problem-solving approach. Rate candidates on specific observable behaviors rather than general impressions. Have multiple interviewers evaluate the candidate independently before discussing their observations.

What if we don't have the resources to create detailed scenarios or role-play team members?

You can simplify these exercises while maintaining their effectiveness. For example, the incident response simulation could focus on the candidate walking through their approach verbally, or the coaching role play could be conducted as a discussion about how they would handle the scenario rather than a full role play. The key is to create opportunities for candidates to demonstrate both technical and leadership capabilities in realistic contexts.

How do these exercises fit into our overall interview process?

These work samples are most effective when integrated into a comprehensive interview process that also includes behavioral interviews, technical discussions, and culture fit assessment. We recommend using 1-2 of these exercises as part of your final interview stages after initial screening has been completed. The exercises provide valuable data points that complement other interview formats and help make more informed hiring decisions.

Can these exercises be conducted remotely?

Yes, all of these exercises can be adapted for remote interviews using video conferencing and collaborative tools. For the system design exercise, use a shared diagramming tool. For the incident response simulation, create a dedicated Slack channel or similar communication platform. The key is to ensure clear communication channels and access to necessary information and tools.

The Site Reliability Engineering Manager role is pivotal to maintaining the reliability and performance of your critical systems while leading a team of skilled engineers. By incorporating these work sample exercises into your hiring process, you'll gain deeper insights into candidates' technical abilities, leadership skills, and problem-solving approaches in realistic scenarios.

These exercises go beyond traditional interviews by allowing you to observe candidates in action, making decisions and demonstrating the skills that truly matter for success in this role. The feedback mechanisms built into each exercise also provide valuable insights into candidates' coachability and growth mindset—essential qualities for any engineering leader.

For more resources to enhance your hiring process, check out Yardstick's AI Job Description Generator, AI Interview Question Generator, and AI Interview Guide Generator. You can also find the complete job description for a Site Reliability Engineering Manager at this link.

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