Overview
What this challenge is about.
Observability for a Microservices Payments Platform. Advanced challenge in design. Designing real products under real constraints, earn a blockchain-verified...
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Redesign observability for 38 microservices around OpenTelemetry tracing, RED metrics, and SLO-driven burn-rate alerting; prototype on 3 services and document rollout for the rest.
This is not a design exercise. It is the work a product designer does between a brief and a shipped interface. That distinction matters to every hiring manager who has seen candidates redesign Spotify's homepage and none who have worked under real product constraints.
When you finish, you will have something most graduates do not: a real-world deliverable, verified by Ewance, that you can show to a hiring manager and say "I did this. Here is the proof."
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Instrument services with OpenTelemetry without coupling to one backend
- Define SLOs that reflect user-visible reliability, not infra-internal metrics
- Configure burn-rate alerting that avoids paging on transient noise
- Write an instrumentation playbook teams will actually follow
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Observability
Apply observability to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Opentelemetry
Apply opentelemetry to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Slo Design
Apply slo design to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Burn Rate Alerting
Apply burn rate alerting to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Prometheus
Apply prometheus to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Structured Logs
Apply structured logs 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: