Software Defined Networking and Programmability Questions

Covers architecture, operational models, and trade offs for software defined networking and programmatic control of network infrastructure. Candidates should demonstrate understanding of separation of control plane and data plane, controller placement and clustering for availability and scale, northbound and southbound application programming interface design, flow based forwarding concepts and flow table limitations, common southbound protocols such as OpenFlow, and policy driven intent models. Evaluators will probe experience with network automation and orchestration using programmatic tooling and infrastructure as code, integration with orchestration systems and network function virtualization, telemetry and streaming observability, debugging and failure modes introduced by centralized control, testing and rollback strategies, and practical constraints when deploying programmable networks at scale.