I'm an experienced SWE and I've been interviewing lately for a number of backend roles involving larger-scale distributed systems, something in which I have a fair amount of experience. I've encountered several interviews during the (virtual) on-site phases for roles lately that involve questions around the operation of such systems. For example, given a relatively standard data ingestion pipeline, how would you operate, monitor, and troubleshoot it?

While I have certainly done these kinds of things in actual jobs, I'm getting feedback that my responses in those interviews are not good. I suspect that like "system design" interviews became their own category with a set of bullet points that you need to touch on during the interview to answer successfully, these "operational" interviews are looking for their own set of bullet points.

Has anyone else encountered these kinds of interviews and if so, do you have any recommendations on material I can use to learn and prepare for them?