Jane Street interview question

Explain, as in depth as possible what happens when you type google.com into a browser in a domain environment.

Interview Answers

Anonymous

1 Dec 2015

If the website(Google.com) is typed into a browser in a domain environment recursive DNS query is made towards the domain DNS server to identify the IP address of the authoritative Google DNS server. If there's a record of the Google server in the host cache, the query won't be made to the domain DNS server but the host resolver answers such query. However, if there's no record of the Google DNS server on the host cache, the query is made to the domain DNS server; the domain server answers the query if it's in its host A record. If not, the domain DNS server performs an iterative query towards the closest root (one of the top level/ NIS servers) server which then performs query to other lower level DNS server till it get to the right google authoritative DNS server where the IP address of the server is returned to the host. Other notable technologiy between the client browser and the server is Google content delivery network which delivers static content to reduce RTT time and improves performance. Mentioning of TCP ports 53 and port 80 is also recommended.

1

Anonymous

4 Mar 2012

Assume cache is empty, trace the request out into the Internet, etc..