System Design Interview Preparation Tips
Mar 18, 2018
6 Comments
Hello,
I am just starting to prepare for SDE interviews, primarily targeting FANG, Microsoft , Uber, Lyft, Dropbox etc.
Regarding system design interview what is the general expectations in terms of depth. Like if we take the question “Design YouTube” , the scope of the question is huge.
So how deep shall we go into it. Like I could start to client side, followed by load balancers, web server , application tier and dB model , caching later, security etc
Is it expected to go deep in each of these layers. Also do they expect functionality design ( class , interfaces, controller layer etc )
Also using Gainlo and leetcode for preparation.
Any suggestions will be helpful.
Thanks.!!!
comments
Regarding depth, all depends on the person interviewing you. My interview at FAANG the guy didn't know what haproxy was, r u kidding? Anyways, be prepared for people who can't answer the question they just asked you.
Ok, to stay positive... Follow the structure recommended by the resources I mentioned above. You will need to show you mojo with schema design, draw a preliminary sys design, then the services, data stores.
most times the last 10 mins are important. If the interviewer is good, they will question you on the bottlenecks they think exists. If you can defend your choices you are golden. Of course, if you get an idiot make sure you they leave the room with the structure you put up, the picture you drew and general confidence in answering the questions.