Secure Data Handling in Code Questions

Principles and practices for protecting sensitive data and secrets in application code and scripts. Topics include avoiding hardcoded credentials, using environment variables and secrets management services, minimizing sensitive data in logs and telemetry, proper encryption at rest and in transit using secure algorithms and key management, secure handling of tokens and session data, secure error messages and data masking, secure deletion and memory handling where appropriate, and processes for secret rotation and auditability. Interviewers look for familiarity with practical mitigations and trade offs across different runtime environments.