Right after a deployment, 500 errors spike on one endpoint. How would you handle it?

Investigate a spike in 500 errors after release

Explains how to triage post-release 500 errors using deployment correlation, logs, traces, feature flags, and rollback safety.

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TL;DR

I would confirm the endpoint, error rate, user impact, and exact release time. Then I would compare the failed requests against the previous baseline and inspect logs/traces for the exception category. If the release clearly caused user impact and rollback is safe, I would rollback or disable the feature while preserving evidence.

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Deployment correlation, endpoint impact, logs, traces, feature flags, rollback, hotfix, and verification.

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Core answer
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Why this question matters
A post-release 500 spike requires fast user protection without losing compatibility and failure evidence. Rollback safety depends on migrations, data changes, configuration, and external contracts, not only on the previous artifact being available.
I would confirm the endpoint, error rate, user impact, and exact release time. Then I would compare the failed requests against the previous baseline and inspect logs/traces for the exception category. If the release clearly caused user impact and rollback is safe, I would rollback or disable the feature while preserving evidence.
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Stronger answer
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I would check what changed: code, configuration, database migration, dependency version, feature flag, secret, environment variable, or route behavior. If only one endpoint fails, a feature flag or targeted hotfix may be safer than full rollback. If a migration already changed data or schema, rollback may be unsafe and a roll-forward fix may be better. The decision depends on blast radius and reversibility.

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Details

Rolling back without checking migration compatibility.
Hotfixing blindly without preserving logs or traces.
Looking only at deploy status instead of user error rate.
Calling recovery complete before metrics return to normal.

Right after a deployment, 500 errors spike on one endpoint. How would you handle it?

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