A 100,000-entry queue cannot be scanned every cycle, a big gang cannot wait forever behind small jobs, and a preemption must not discard an hour of work. The loop in order (admit, order, place, reserve, backfill, preempt), the queue-wait arithmetic, and the checkpoint-aware victim rule.
Updated Sep 2026 · Grounded in real AI infrastructure interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar, with every number worked and every diagram hand-built.
A 100,000-entry queue cannot be scanned every cycle, a big gang cannot wait forever behind small jobs, and a preemption must not discard an hour of work. The loop in order (admit, order, place, reserve, backfill, preempt), the queue-wait arithmetic, and the checkpoint-aware victim rule.
Ranked by how closely each one overlaps this question's topic, so the first card is the thing to read if the answer above moved too fast.
Scored on the loop's order and what each stage costs per cycle, on the utilization-versus-wait trade with a number, and on preemption that picks the victim by work-since-checkpoint rather than by priority alone.
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