You're facing lag issues in a multiplayer game. How will you troubleshoot them under tight deadlines?

To address lag, first determine if it's caused by network latency or performance issues. Network latency, or 'ping', is the delay in data traveling between the player’s device and the server. Performance issues involve the game's framerate or data processing speed. Use diagnostic tools to measure network performance, looking for packet loss or jitter, and monitor the framerate for drops to identify performance bottlenecks.

When you encounter lag, first determine if it's due to network latency or performance issues. Network latency, or 'ping', measures the time data travels between the player's device and the server. Performance issues relate to the game's framerate. Use diagnostic tools to check for packet loss or jitter for network problems, and monitor the game's framerate for drops indicating performance bottlenecks.

Under tight deadlines, start by prioritizing immediate, high-impact fixes. Begin with the most common causes of lag, such as network latency or server performance issues, and use monitoring tools to identify bottlenecks. Optimize critical code paths and reduce unnecessary data transmission to improve performance quickly. Implement temporary solutions like increasing server capacity or adjusting game settings to alleviate the issues while working on long-term fixes. Communicate clearly with your team and stakeholders about the steps being taken and manage expectations to ensure a balanced approach to resolving lag issues.

Server performance is critical in multiplayer setups. Monitor the server load to ensure it’s not overwhelmed, as excessive requests can cause lag. Check if the server hardware meets the game's demands and scale resources or balance the load across multiple servers if needed. Additionally, consider the geographic location of your servers, as players farther from the server may experience higher latency.

Proper monitoring will help to identify the side of the lags before major affecting production. Next you have to have tracking of any production changes from your studio. It might be new release of client or a new rollout of backend/infrastructure . It will help match your production changes with the lags. Next you should have options to full rollback changes in case of critical impact. In case of third party dependencies you have less options to troubleshoot fast and effective communication with the support will help to identify steps to fix issues.