Worked on the istio/istio repository to enhance reliability and test coverage for multi-network deployments, focusing on Endpoint Discovery Service (EDS) and pod annotation handling. Developed and improved Go-based tests to verify EDS updates for service-bound waypoints, addressing delayed updates and event sequencing in Kubernetes environments. Fixed test infrastructure to synchronize tag watchers and reduce reconcile flakiness, supporting safer releases and faster iteration. Additionally, stabilized the pod annotation reconcile loop by preventing unnecessary update events, which improved test reliability and CI confidence. Demonstrated depth in event-driven architecture, networking, and mocking, contributing to maintainable, release-quality testing in a large-scale microservices mesh.