.NET Architecture & System Design Interview Question #179

What is canary deployment?

Deployment, Cloud Operations, SRE & Senior System Design Scenarios Senior Advanced

Quick Interview Answer

Canary deployment releases a new version to a small percentage of production traffic or users before expanding exposure.

Detailed Explanation

Canary deployment releases a new version to a small percentage of production traffic or users before expanding exposure.

Teams compare errors, latency, business metrics, and other signals between versions. If the canary is healthy, traffic is increased progressively; otherwise, the rollout can be stopped or reversed with limited impact.

Code Example

v1 -> 95% traffic
v2 ->  5% traffic

Observe metrics
   |
increase v2 gradually