How to structure response to unprepared system design question?

Amazon
fungo

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fungo
Apr 26 6 Comments

I had an system design interview today. I was asked a question that I had never read about before. I managed to cook something up but it was not as structured as I had hoped for. I had practiced well to come up with estimates and storage etc. But didn’t apply any of it during the interview cause I was continuously blabbering about different flows and failures etc.

For my future interviews, I want to learn how to succinctly come up with solution for an unseen system design problem. Any tips ?
Interview was for L4/L5 at a FAANG

TC- 280k
YOE-8

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  • I have used Pedals method in interviews with FAANG+ companies, have not failed a single system design interview. I found it better than grokking.

    https://www.lewis-lin.com/blog/pedals-method
    Apr 26 1
    • Amazon
      fungo

      Go to company page Amazon

      fungo
      OP
      Thank you for sharing this! I will read through it. Have you been asked a system design problem that you didn’t have knowledge of before ? Did this method help you ?
      Apr 26
  • Amazon
    Team•Blind

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    Team•Blind
    Most system design questions are basic CRUD/streaming service/sockets/chat/XMPP

    What type of service were you asked to build?
    Apr 26 3
    • IBM
      harishkudr

      Go to company page IBM

      harishkudr
      I have never attended System design interview I am complete beginner
      I want to prepare please suggest me the sources. Thanks in advances
      Apr 26
    • Amazon
      fungo

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      fungo
      OP
      I hadn’t thought about such a system before. So I talked through it and came up with the components on the go and went a bit back and forth between them but the design solved the problem. But I would have liked to talk about scaling problems and failure modes more distinctly. Talk about multiple options and trade offs. If I was given sufficient time to think through it I would have been able to break it down more cleanly and talk through it. Since there is no such option in a interview setup how to do better ?
      Apr 26