How would you answer an interview scenario involving distributed tracing?

In an interview, I would first define distributed tracing and the problem it solves, then explain how I would propagate standard trace context, instrument important boundaries, sample with an intentional strategy, correlate traces with logs and metrics, and avoid recording sensitive payloads. I would also call out the main failure mode: instrumenting only the entry service produces isolated traces that cannot explain downstream latency or asynchronous processing. Finally, I would describe how I would test, monitor, and safely roll back or recover the solution.