Dashboard Reading Language — Grafana & Datadog
Practice the vocabulary used when reading and narrating monitoring dashboards in English.
0 / 24 completed
1 / 24
A Grafana panel shows a red threshold line crossed by the metric. What does this indicate?
A threshold line on a dashboard marks the boundary between acceptable and alerting values.
2 / 24
A Datadog dashboard shows p99 latency. What does p99 mean?
p99 (99th percentile) means 99% of requests completed faster than this value — it captures tail latency.
3 / 24
The dashboard time range shows Last 1h. You see a spike 45 minutes ago. How would you describe this?
Within the Last 1h window, an event 45 minutes back means approximately 45 minutes before now.
4 / 24
A dashboard shows request rate (rpm) and error rate (%). Both lines spike simultaneously. What is the most likely interpretation?
Correlated spikes in traffic and errors often indicate traffic-related issues or capacity limits being reached.
5 / 24
You are describing a dashboard panel to a team member. Which sentence uses the most precise technical language?
Recovered to baseline is precise SRE language indicating return to normal operating values after an anomaly.
6 / 24
PR Description
Subject: Investigate High CPU Usage on Production Service
Body:
"We're seeing elevated CPU usage on the 'service-x' deployment. The Grafana dashboard shows a sustained spike over the last 30 minutes. Looks like it could be related to the recent code changes. Let's investigate!"This response demonstrates effective communication for a code review. The description clearly states the observed problem (elevated CPU usage), points to a potential cause (recent code changes), and proposes a specific action – investigation.
PR descriptions should be concise and actionable, guiding reviewers towards understanding the issue and suggesting next steps without being overly detailed or assuming immediate solutions.7 / 24
PR Description
During a code review, your teammate comments: 'This change introduces a potential performance bottleneck. The Grafana panel for CPU utilization on the 'service-x' deployment shows consistently high values – exceeding 80% for an extended period. We need to monitor this closely and investigate further.' Which of the following best describes the tone and level of detail in this comment?This comment demonstrates professional, actionable communication within a code review setting. It accurately identifies a significant metric (CPU utilization > 80%) and suggests a clear course of action – monitoring and investigation. The key difference is that it goes beyond simply stating the problem; it provides context and directs attention to a specific threshold, crucial for effective debugging and performance analysis. Options A and C are too simplistic, while option D doesn't capture the comment's focused technical nature.
8 / 24
PR Description
Subject: Investigate High CPU Usage on Production Service
Body:
"We're seeing elevated CPU usage on the 'service-x' deployment. The Grafana dashboard shows a sustained spike over the last 30 minutes. Looks like it could be related to the recent code changes. Let's investigate!"This response demonstrates effective communication for a code review. The description clearly states the observed problem (elevated CPU usage), points to a potential cause (recent code changes), and proposes a specific action – investigation.
PR descriptions should be concise and actionable, guiding reviewers towards understanding the issue and suggesting next steps without being overly detailed or assuming immediate solutions.9 / 24
PR Description
During a code review, your teammate comments: 'This change introduces a potential performance bottleneck. The Grafana panel for CPU utilization on the 'service-x' deployment shows consistently high values – exceeding 80% for an extended period. We need to monitor this closely and investigate further.' Which of the following best describes the tone and level of detail in this comment?This comment demonstrates professional, actionable communication within a code review setting. It accurately identifies a significant metric (CPU utilization > 80%) and suggests a clear course of action – monitoring and investigation. The key difference is that it goes beyond simply stating the problem; it provides context and directs attention to a specific threshold, crucial for effective debugging and performance analysis. Options A and C are too simplistic, while option D doesn't capture the comment's focused technical nature.
10 / 24
PR Description
Subject: Investigate High CPU Usage on Production Service
Body:
"We're seeing elevated CPU usage on the 'service-x' deployment. The Grafana dashboard shows a sustained spike over the last 30 minutes. Looks like it could be related to the recent code changes. Let's investigate!"This response demonstrates effective communication for a code review. The description clearly states the observed problem (elevated CPU usage), points to a potential cause (recent code changes), and proposes a specific action – investigation.
PR descriptions should be concise and actionable, guiding reviewers towards understanding the issue and suggesting next steps without being overly detailed or assuming immediate solutions.11 / 24
PR Description
During a code review, your teammate comments: 'This change introduces a potential performance bottleneck. The Grafana panel for CPU utilization on the 'service-x' deployment shows consistently high values – exceeding 80% for an extended period. We need to monitor this closely and investigate further.' Which of the following best describes the tone and level of detail in this comment?This comment demonstrates professional, actionable communication within a code review setting. It accurately identifies a significant metric (CPU utilization > 80%) and suggests a clear course of action – monitoring and investigation. The key difference is that it goes beyond simply stating the problem; it provides context and directs attention to a specific threshold, crucial for effective debugging and performance analysis. Options A and C are too simplistic, while option D doesn't capture the comment's focused technical nature.
12 / 24
PR Description
Subject: Investigate High CPU Usage on Production Service
Body:
"We're seeing elevated CPU usage on the 'service-x' deployment. The Grafana dashboard shows a sustained spike over the last 30 minutes. Looks like it could be related to the recent code changes. Let's investigate!"This response demonstrates effective communication for a code review. The description clearly states the observed problem (elevated CPU usage), points to a potential cause (recent code changes), and proposes a specific action – investigation.
PR descriptions should be concise and actionable, guiding reviewers towards understanding the issue and suggesting next steps without being overly detailed or assuming immediate solutions.13 / 24
PR Description
During a code review, your teammate comments: 'This change introduces a potential performance bottleneck. The Grafana panel for CPU utilization on the 'service-x' deployment shows consistently high values – exceeding 80% for an extended period. We need to monitor this closely and investigate further.' Which of the following best describes the tone and level of detail in this comment?This comment demonstrates professional, actionable communication within a code review setting. It accurately identifies a significant metric (CPU utilization > 80%) and suggests a clear course of action – monitoring and investigation. The key difference is that it goes beyond simply stating the problem; it provides context and directs attention to a specific threshold, crucial for effective debugging and performance analysis. Options A and C are too simplistic, while option D doesn't capture the comment's focused technical nature.
14 / 24
Alice: 'The Datadog dashboard shows a high 'CPU Utilization' metric for the 'api-service'. What does this generally indicate?'
High CPU utilization typically means the service is actively processing a large volume of requests. This can be due to increased demand or inefficient code. Option A correctly identifies swapping as a common symptom when resources are exhausted. Options B and C represent other potential issues but don't directly explain the core meaning of 'CPU Utilization' in this context.
15 / 24
In a Slack message to your team: 'I'm seeing a sudden drop in the 'request rate' metric on the Grafana dashboard for the 'user-service'. What should I investigate first?'
When a metric like 'request rate' suddenly decreases, it's often indicative of a problem in the service itself. Database connection issues are a common cause of slowdowns that would directly impact request rates. While other options could contribute to problems, investigating the application code or database is the most direct first step.
16 / 24
API Response:{"metric": "CPU Utilization","host": "api-service","timeframe": "5m","value": 95,}
What does a 'value' of 95 in this response likely signify?
A value of 95 in this context represents the percentage of time that the CPU was utilized during the specified timeframe (5 minutes). Anything above 80% is generally considered high and warrants attention, as it suggests the service is heavily loaded. This indicates a need to investigate potential performance bottlenecks.
17 / 24
You're monitoring a Grafana dashboard for your e-commerce platform. The 'Request Rate' line shows a sudden drop of 60% over the last 5 minutes. Describe, in one or two sentences, what you would investigate first and why.
A sudden drop in request rate is often indicative of a problem with the front-end. Slowing JavaScript can significantly impact request processing time. While database issues or network problems could also contribute, identifying and addressing frontend performance bottlenecks is usually the first logical step. Option A is unlikely without specific knowledge of the connection pool.
18 / 24
During a code review, your teammate comments: 'This change introduces a potential performance bottleneck. The Grafana panel for CPU utilization on the 'order-service' deployment shows consistently high values during peak hours.' What does this suggest about the change?
'High values' on the CPU utilization panel during peak hours strongly suggests that the change is *increasing* the load on the order service. The code may be performing more operations or consuming more resources than before. Option A contradicts the comment; option D is unlikely without other indicators.
19 / 24
PR Description
Subject: Investigate High CPU Usage on Production Service
Body:
"We're seeing elevated CPU usage on the 'payment-service' deployment. The Grafana dashboard shows a sustained spike over the last 30 minutes. The spike coincides with a large number of new user registrations." What is the *most* important piece of information to investigate next, based solely on this description?
The description explicitly links the CPU spike to 'new user registrations'. This strongly suggests that the issue lies within the registration process itself – specifically, the database performance handling a surge in new users. Option B is relevant but secondary; options C and D are less directly related to the observed data.
20 / 24
Ben is explaining a Grafana panel to Sarah. He says: 'The dashboard shows the 'CPU Utilization' metric for the 'web-app' service. It's currently at 85%. This means the server is working very hard.' Which statement best describes Ben's understanding?
Ben correctly interprets 'CPU Utilization' as the percentage of processor time being used. This is crucial because high CPU utilization often signals performance bottlenecks. The other options misrepresent what this metric actually measures – it isn't user count, memory allocation, or network bandwidth.
21 / 24
PR Description
Subject: Investigate High Latency on Production Service
Body:
'We're observing increased latency across the 'data-pipeline' deployment. The Datadog dashboard displays a sustained spike in the 'Response Time' metric, averaging 300ms over the last hour. What is the MOST important next step based solely on this information?'
The key takeaway from the dashboard is the elevated response time. Scaling infrastructure is a standard initial response when performance metrics are high. While other options might be relevant later, addressing the root cause of increased latency – likely processing load – is the priority. Rolling back code without understanding the cause could simply mask the problem.
22 / 24
You're monitoring a Grafana dashboard for your internal messaging service. The 'Error Rate' line shows a sudden increase of 200% over the last 5 minutes. In a Slack message to your team, which of the following messages would be most effective?
The most effective Slack message provides context and directs action without panic. 'Something is seriously wrong' can cause unnecessary alarm. The second option clearly states the problem and invites further investigation. Options three and four are too urgent and lack specific guidance.
23 / 24
API Response:
{
"metric": "Request Rate",
"host": "user-service",
"timeframe": "15m",
"value": 120,
"unit": "requests/minute"}
What does a 'value' of 120 in this response likely signify, and what potential action might you take based on this data?
A 'value' of 120 represents the number of requests received. While it's not necessarily an error, exceeding expected thresholds often warrants investigation. This response suggests that the request rate is above normal which needs to be investigated for potential performance issues or unexpected traffic.
24 / 24
During your daily stand-up, you're asked to provide an update on a monitoring task. The Grafana dashboard shows that the 'API Response Time' for the 'authentication-service' has increased by 50% over the last hour. What is the MOST concise and informative way to report this during the stand-up?
This response provides a clear, quantitative summary of the issue (50% increase) and identifies the affected service. It avoids vague statements like 'really slow' or overly dramatic descriptions. Precise figures allow for immediate prioritization and targeted investigation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the "Dashboard Reading Language — Grafana & Datadog" exercise practise?
Practice the vocabulary used when reading and narrating monitoring dashboards in English.
How many questions are in this exercise?
This exercise has 24 questions, each multiple-choice with a full explanation shown after you answer.
What English level is this exercise for?
This exercise is tagged Intermediate. If the vocabulary feels difficult, browse the Data Visualization category page for an easier module to start with.
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