Interview › Scripting (Bash, Groovy)
How would you write a script to retry a flaky command with a delay? [Advanced]
Answer
I write retries as a loop with a maximum attempt count, delay, and clear logging. The script should return success as soon as the command succeeds and return nonzero after all attempts fail.
Technical explanation
Retries are appropriate for transient failures, not deterministic errors such as invalid credentials or bad syntax.
Use exponential backoff for overloaded remote systems.
Make commands idempotent before retrying them, especially for writes or deployments.
Hands-on example
retry() {
local max=${1}; shift
local delay=${1}; shift
local attempt
for ((attempt=1; attempt<=max; attempt++)); do
"$@" && return 0
echo "attempt $attempt/$max failed: $*" >&2
sleep "$delay"
done
return 1
}
retry 5 3 curl -fsS https://example.com/healthPreparing for an interview?
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