Does anyone know what to expect in the System Design Interview? As per recruiter, this is different from Architecture rounds which is more like "Design a service that does X" and something that will require digging in with more details, pseudocode etc. Thanks in advance. Blind Tax: ~20 YOE, L7, 675K TC #databricks
What’s your level at google? 675 is awesome!
L7, Added to original post. Its alright, nothing out of the ordinary IMO.
Nice. thx. IC or mgr? why move? you've 20 yoe and making 675k. why hustle even now?
Are you a specialist or generalist at Google? Infra or product?
GCP....Infra...specialist.
What type of infra?
They have 2 sys design rounds. One is the typical "design YouTube"-type architecture brainstorming, and the other focused on a single component, with pseudocode and a deeper dive into concurrency/multithreading. At least in my case it would have helped to review common threading patterns before that interview :/ Locks, thread pools, etc.
This is great information, Thanks. I have a decent idea about the architecture round, I already did an architecture phone screen interview. Those match the kind of questions in Alex Xu's book. I am more interested in the "system design" interview which involves multi-threading. Did you interview recently? Can I DM for more info?
It was similar to leetcode 1242. A simpler variation of it, but with similar follow-ups and no expectation of running the (pseudo)code.
I have phone screen scheduled. How was the design round on phone?. Recruiter mentioned going to be distributed systems. But any pointers to prepare will be helpful.
Study Alex Xu's book, volume 1 and volume 2. That should be more than enough for the architecture rounds. I would put a bit more emphasis on volume 1 as the problems are "classic" and will give you a decent chance of success even if you see an unknown question. volume 2 gets into more specific areas like maps, yelp, uber, payment systems etc which are a bit harder. volume 1 is an easier read than volume 2. volume 2 has a quite a bit more information on each topic, But if you have time, you will definitely increase your chance of success by reviewing both. Here are some other Blinds threads on interview prep and they cover system design prep quit well: https://www.teamblind.com/post/6-Offers-Interview-tips-for-Senior-SWEEMs-CC55ufCZ https://www.teamblind.com/post/5-interviews-5-offers-zvRTcqoP https://www.teamblind.com/post/Interview-summary-eUo4Pyrz
Thank you so much. I am going over volume 1, will try to skim volume 2 if I have time.
@op: how many rounds of interview did you have? How many of them were coding?
Nice TC