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.NET & C# · Entity Framework Core

How would you answer an interview scenario involving eager, explicit, and lazy loading in Entity Framework Core?

AdvancedUpdated 2026-08-09

For an interview scenario involving eager, explicit, and lazy loading, I would first clarify the business goal, scale, constraints, and the failure or quality attribute the interviewer wants to explore. Related data can be loaded eagerly with Include, explicitly on demand, or lazily when proxies are enabled. In this scenario, an orders endpoint emits hundreds of SQL statements. Explain how you would identify and remove the N+1 problem. For production, prefer projections or targeted eager loading, inspect generated SQL, and avoid loading unnecessary graphs. I would then explain the main alternatives and tradeoffs, identify likely failure modes, and describe how I would validate the solution through testing, observability, security controls, and recovery or rollback planning.

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