What is 5 Whys analysis? Give an example.
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Quick Answer
A root-cause technique: ask "why" repeatedly (about five times) to move from symptom to underlying cause. Example: Website down → DB full → disk full → logs not deleted → no log rotation (root cause).
Detailed Answer
Each answer becomes the next question, drilling past symptoms to the systemic cause so the fix prevents recurrence rather than patching the surface. It works best for linear cause chains; complex incidents may need broader techniques (fishbone, contributing-factors analysis). Pair it with a blameless postmortem so people answer honestly.
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Interview Tip
Give the classic chain (down → DB full → disk full → logs → no rotation) — a concrete example lands better than the definition.
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