# Deep Dive Kubernetes Pod Start and Failure Modes

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/software-engineer-interview-prep-podcast-7756520/deep-dive-kubernetes-pod-start-and-failure-modes
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/software-engineer-interview-prep-podcast-7756520/deep-dive-kubernetes-pod-start-and-failure-modes.md
Podcast: [Software Engineer Interview Prep Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/software-engineer-interview-prep-podcast-7756520)
Published: 2026-04-18T00:09:05+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/prabuddha-ganegoda/episodes/Deep-Dive-Kubernetes-Pod-Start-and-Failure-Modes-e3i31c2
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/10f2c0f8c/podcast/play/118637378/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-3-18%2F00a47342-f2aa-d35e-e859-8b27527be591.m4a
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/software-engineer-interview-prep-podcast-7756520/episodes/deep-dive-kubernetes-pod-start-and-failure-modes
Duration seconds: 1915

## Resource

What We Cover in This Episode: The Probe Trap, Why telling an interviewer that a "liveness probe failure removes traffic" is an instant red flag (it actually kills and restarts the container!), and why you should never check external databases in your liveness probes. The JWT Myth: Why saying "JWTs are encrypted" will cost you points. We explain how to articulate that standard JWTs are signed , and how to defend against the notorious alg: none attack. Silent Istio YAML Bugs: We expose the most common structural bug candidates write on the whiteboard: putting fault, retries, and route as separate list items in an Istio VirtualService, which silently fails to route traffic. Zero-Trust Security Illusions: Did you know that Istio's RequestAuthentication alone does not reject unauthenticated requests? We explain why you absolutely need an AuthorizationPolicy to actually block traffic. The Sidecar Evolution: How to elevate your answer from a mid-level to a Staff-level by explaining the new Kubernetes 1.29 native sidecars (restartPolicy: Always), effectively solving the old startup race conditions

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## Transcript

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