How do you define an API slice using createApi()?

0-2 years experience

1. 1We need to fetch a list of products in a new component. Walk me through how you'd set up an API slice with createApi to call `/api/products`.
2. 2If you add a new endpoint to an existing API slice, what steps do you take to ensure the generated hooks are available in your component?
3. 3What happens if you forget to provide a baseQuery when calling createApi?

2-5 years experience

1. 1Your team added pagination to the `/users` endpoint, but the UI still shows stale data after navigating pages. How would you debug the API slice definition to fix this?
2. 2You need to call two different back‑ends from the same app. How would you structure your createApi calls, and what trade‑offs does that introduce?
3. 3During a code review you notice the API slice uses fetchBaseQuery with hard‑coded URLs. What would you change to make it environment‑agnostic, and why?

5-8 years experience

1. 1Our app experiences memory pressure because cached responses from several API slices aren't being cleared. How would you redesign the API slice definitions or caching policies to mitigate this at scale?
2. 2We want to enable server‑side rendering for a page that uses RTK Query hooks. What changes are required in the createApi configuration and why?
3. 3Explain how you would integrate optimistic updates for a mutation in an API slice, and what considerations you’d have for error rollback.

8+ years experience

1. 1The organization is migrating from a custom data‑fetching layer to RTK Query across dozens of services. What strategy would you propose for defining API slices to minimize duplication and support versioned back‑ends?
2. 2How would you design a shared, cross‑team API slice architecture that balances type safety, caching granularity, and the need for different authentication schemes?
3. 3Discuss the long‑term maintenance implications of placing all endpoints in a single createApi call versus modularizing them per domain.