Getting Unstuck: How Senior Engineers Solve Problems Faster

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Welcome to another week, another opportunity to become a great DevOps and Software Engineer

Today’s issue is brought to you by TheEngineeringLadder→ A great resource for devops and software engineers. We break down career-changing lessons in DevOps and Software Engineering to help you level up fast.

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I’ll never forget one late night during a project deadline.

I was staring at the screen, completely frozen. My deployment pipeline was failing at the final stage — and no matter what I tried, nothing worked.

I kept throwing random fixes at it: tweak the YAML, restart containers, rebuild images, re-run the pipeline. Over and over.

Hours went by.
Confidence dropped.
Frustration climbed.

That’s when a senior teammate walked over, looked at my screen for 30 seconds, and asked:

That single question changed everything.

Because here’s the truth: senior engineers don’t get stuck less often- they just get unstuck faster.

The Junior Way of Being Stuck

When you’re new, “stuck” usually means panic.
You:

• Keep trying the same fix hoping it’ll magically work

• Jump between 10 different Stack Overflow threads

• Rewrite big chunks of code without knowing what broke

• Lose hours (or days) without real progress

It’s not a lack of intelligence. It’s a lack of strategy.

The Senior Way of Getting Unstuck

Over time, I noticed a pattern: the best engineers all follow frameworks when they’re blocked. They don’t just “try things.” They debug systematically.

Here are three frameworks I’ve adopted:

1. Reduce the Problem

Ask: What’s the smallest piece I know works?

• If a whole pipeline is failing, run just one step.

• If an app won’t start, test the database connection separately.

• Shrink the surface area until you find the failing boundary.

2. Change One Thing at a Time

Juniors flip five switches and hope for the best.
Seniors change one variable, re-test, and observe.
That way, when it works, they know exactly why.

3. Write It Down

This sounds boring. But writing your steps forces clarity.

• What did I try?

• What happened?

• What’s my hypothesis now?

Half the time, the answer appears mid-sentence because your brain stops looping the same thought.

A Story That Drove This Home

In one interview, I was given a broken Docker setup.

At first, I panicked. Nothing built, nothing ran.

But instead of flailing, I slowed down:

• Step 1: Confirm Docker was installed and running.

• Step 2: Build the image manually. Found a syntax error in the Dockerfile.

• Step 3: Fix the error, re-run the container, then move to networking.

I didn’t even finish fixing everything. But the interviewer told me afterwards:

That’s when it clicked: being systematic is more impressive than being fast.

How You Can Practice

This week, instead of avoiding being stuck-practice how you get unstuck:

1. Pick a problem (it could even be an intentional bug).

2. Apply the three steps:

   • Reduce the problem

   • Change one thing at a time

   • Write it down

3. Notice how much faster you move compared to panic-debugging.

Final Thoughts

Everyone gets stuck.
Juniors panic.
Seniors slow down, shrink the problem, and work methodically until it breaks open.

That’s the difference.

Coming up next week:

The Business Side of Engineering: Thinking Beyond Code- why the most valuable engineers aren’t just coders, but problem solvers who see the bigger picture.

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