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AI Security

Interview question · Systems, OS & Memory Safety

How do you run untrusted code safely? Compare process sandboxes, seccomp, containers, gVisor, microVMs and WebAssembly.

Every platform that runs someone else's code (plugins, notebooks, AI agents, serverless) must pick a boundary. The right one depends on what the code may do and what a single bug in the boundary costs.

hardEssentialNewPreparation tags: Google, Amazon, CloudflareUpdated Nov 2026

Every platform that runs someone else's code (plugins, notebooks, AI agents, serverless) must pick a boundary. The right one depends on what the code may do and what a single bug in the boundary costs.

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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.

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

An AI coding agent runs model-written Python to analyse users' uploaded data in a shared backend.

  1. What is the first design decision?
  2. What boundary options exist?
  3. Which boundary fits this case?
  4. What should be inside the sandbox?
  5. What happens after the session?
  6. What execution design would you implement?

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.

UP NEXT ON YOUR JOURNEY
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