Explore the fun and facts behind production failures in frontend and backend web development. This quiz compares common pitfalls, incident causes, and risk factors between frontend and backend teams, helping you understand where things most often go awry.
When a web application suddenly displays broken layouts or missing buttons right after deployment, which part of the stack is most likely responsible for such visible errors?
Explanation: The frontend is most responsible for visible errors like broken layouts or missing buttons because it controls what the user sees and interacts with directly. While backend issues can cause data errors or failures behind the scenes, layout problems typically originate from frontend code. Databases store and serve data but do not control interface rendering. Network issues might prevent the application from loading entirely but do not usually cause specific layout problems.
If users complain that data they submit gets lost or saved incorrectly, especially after a major deployment, which team is more likely at fault in this scenario?
Explanation: Backend systems handle data processing and storage, making them more likely to introduce data corruption if something goes wrong during deployment. Frontend errors usually affect what users see, not how data is stored or processed. DevOps and QA teams can contribute to system reliability, but the backend is fundamentally responsible for managing data integrity. Choosing QA or DevOps overlooks the primary processing layer where data handling happens.
Which team in web development is statistically more likely to deploy a 'hotfix' quickly for cosmetic bugs, sometimes introducing new visual issues as a result?
Explanation: Frontend teams often rush to fix visible problems that directly affect user experience, leading to quick hotfixes that may not be thoroughly tested, sometimes resulting in additional visual glitches. Backend teams do deploy hotfixes, but their changes are less visibly apparent to users, and they usually affect functionality rather than appearance. Security and Infrastructure teams rarely deal with cosmetic issues and thus are less likely to introduce visual bugs through hotfixes.
Which side is more prone to causing widespread production outages from minor typos or a single misplaced character in their code?
Explanation: Backend code changes, such as a typo in a configuration or logic error in request handling, can result in total system outages or critical functionality loss, even from a small mistake. Frontend typos often cause visual bugs but rarely lead to site-wide unavailability. Monitoring and Support teams do not directly introduce code changes that would cause outages, so selecting them would be incorrect.
When it comes to high-impact rollbacks in web services, which type of team’s deployments are statistically more likely to require urgent reversal due to severe user-facing issues?
Explanation: Backend deployments can introduce critical failures affecting core functionality such as authentication, business logic, or data access, often necessitating urgent rollbacks. Frontend deployments mainly impact the visual experience but less commonly cause total service interruptions. Testing and Documentation teams do not deploy to production environments in a way that could necessitate rapid rollback, making those options less appropriate.