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Interview question · Cryptography, PKI & TLS

Why do CAs sign with intermediates instead of the root? Explain path building, cross-signing, name constraints and compromise.

The root key is the one thing you can never easily replace, so it signs almost nothing. Everything about intermediates follows from that.

mediumEssentialNewPreparation tags: Google, Microsoft, AppleUpdated Nov 2026

The root key is the one thing you can never easily replace, so it signs almost nothing. Everything about intermediates follows from that.

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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.

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What if · the follow-ups in this answer

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

Your company runs an internal PKI for service certificates, and the root CA key is on an online server that also issues leaf certificates.

  1. What is a root CA?
  2. Why keep the root offline?
  3. What do intermediates do?
  4. How should intermediates be restricted?
  5. How do you migrate from the current setup?
  6. What would you change?

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