Please read part 0 to get an overview of what to expect in this article series. Part 1 lists out the study material required to nail the system design interview. In this article, we will cover the format you should follow during the system design interview.
Typically system design interviews will focus on a narrow part of a larger problem. For e.g. you are way more likely to be asked to design a service for tracking driver locations rather than to “design Uber”. Interviewers do this because it’s much easier to gauge your performance on a problem that is narrow & well understood by them than something broad (which runs the risk of the interview getting derailed).
Let me start off by saying that you should be leading/driving the system design conversation. If most of the talking is done by the interviewer, you’re probably not doing too well. Your interviewer will often interject & challenge what you say, so be prepared to explain the rationale behind your design recommendations & decisions. Usually there is no single right answer — there are typically many good ways to solve the problem, and it’s about making trade-offs.
The rubric used to assess you
It’s important to keep in mind how you’ll be assessed. Although this will vary to some degree from company to company, by and large the rubric for the system design interview assesses the following:
- Can you navigate an ambiguous problem space?