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Interview question · Application & API Security

Design the session lifecycle for a web app: creation, rotation, timeouts, logout and revocation after a password change.

Logging in is one moment; a session lasts hours or months. Most session bugs live in what happens between: identifiers that never change, timeouts nobody enforces, and logouts that only clear the browser.

mediumNewPreparation tags: Google, Microsoft, SalesforceUpdated Nov 2026

Logging in is one moment; a session lasts hours or months. Most session bugs live in what happens between: identifiers that never change, timeouts nobody enforces, and logouts that only clear the browser.

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What if · the follow-ups in this answer

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

A web app's sessions never expire and survive password changes, and a user reports someone else still logged in after they changed their password.

  1. How should session identifiers be created?
  2. When should a new identifier be issued?
  3. What timeouts are needed?
  4. What should logout and password change do?
  5. What should users be able to see?
  6. How would you fix the session handling?

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