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Interview question · Identity, OAuth & Access Control

When should authorisation move out of application code into a central policy engine or service, and what are the trade-offs?

Scattered permission checks drift apart until one is wrong. The scored answer weighs a central decision service against latency, availability and consistency, and keeps enforcement close to the data.

hardNewPreparation tags: Google, Amazon, MicrosoftUpdated Nov 2026

Scattered permission checks drift apart until one is wrong. The scored answer weighs a central decision service against latency, availability and consistency, and keeps enforcement close to the data.

Make your first attempt

What would you say before reading the answer?

  1. 01 State the assumptions your answer depends on.
  2. 02 Explain the mechanism and choose a control.
  3. 03 Name a condition that would change your decision.

The worked answer includes an approach, scoring criteria and follow-up questions. Compare the reasoning with your own.

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What if · the follow-ups in this answer

The answer works through 6 follow-ups like an interviewer would

A company wants to move authorisation logic from 200 services into a central policy engine to make rules consistent and auditable.

  1. When does centralising authorisation make sense?
  2. What options exist?
  3. What new risks does a central engine add?
  4. What about consistency between permission changes and checks?
  5. How would you migrate 200 services?
  6. What plan would you propose?

Each rung has a nudge, a model answer, the principle that carries over and the weak answer to avoid. Premium opens every answer and ladder.

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