Capacity Planning Model for a Black-Friday Traffic Surge
Overview
What this challenge is about.
Build a capacity planning model for Black-Friday traffic using Prometheus data and Prophet. Deliver Python code and a proposal. Get a verifiable certificate.
The scenario
The e-commerce platform (around 65 percent of holiday revenue concentrated in BFCM weekend) cannot afford either a meltdown or 60 percent over-provisioning — the proposal is the trade-off made explicit.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Replace 60 percent over-provisioning with a forecast-driven capacity-planning model validated against 3 prior BFCMs, including autoscaling + pre-warm playbook.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Apply seasonal forecasting (Prophet / SARIMA) to operational traffic data
- Derive per-service capacity from utilization curves and headroom policy
- Design autoscaling that respects warm-up time and scale-in safety
- Validate capacity models against prior peak events
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Site Reliability Engineering
Master · Cloud And Devops
Strong alignment
This challenge maps to Site Reliability Engineering at the Master level. It sharpens the same practical skills your coursework expects — but in a real industry context with actual constraints and deliverables.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Capacity Planning
Apply capacity planning to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Forecasting
Apply forecasting to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Autoscaling
Apply autoscaling to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Load Testing
Apply load testing to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Python Programming
Apply python programming to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Reliability Engineering
Apply reliability engineering to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles: