Prepare for frontend system design

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tu31Da

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tu31Da
Apr 3, 2019 6 Comments

I'm an Android engineer with 2.5 YOE. I have onsite interviews coming up with Facebook and Google. What's the best way to prepare for my system design round, as it is specific to Android?

Everything I've seen till now talks about designing systems so they can scale, but that's a pretty generalist approach?

Would appreciate any resources or responses from people who've interviewed in similar roles.

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TOP 6 Comments
  • Clever Devices / Eng
    nzbU08

    Go to company page Clever Devices Eng

    nzbU08
    I disagree with Microsoft, especially for 2.5 YOE. I have 3 YOE, no experience designing systems professionally, but was able to do well enough in the design interview to get an E4 offer instead of E3 from Facebook. There’s resources out there like Grokking the System Design Interview, the System Design Primer on Github, and Designing Data Intensive Applications that can get you thinking about things the right way. For under 3 YOE, my hunch is they wanna know more about your thought process than your actual experience.

    Unfortunately I don’t have a direct answer to your question though. My own design interview was more focused on the API layer than other parts of the system.
    Apr 3, 2019 4
    • Clever Devices / Eng
      nzbU08

      Go to company page Clever Devices Eng

      nzbU08
      Hmm I don’t think grokking goes too much into front end stuff honestly. You should ask your recruiter what to expect out of a front end/mobile design interview. I’m sure they’d shed some light on it and probably even recommend their own resources if they haven’t done that already. Mine recommended highscalability.com for example. I don’t think it’s worth mentioning inexperience to your recruiter though. They’re probably aware but using it anyway to determine level.
      Apr 3, 2019
    • New
      tu31Da

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      tu31Da
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      Apr 3, 2019
  • To pass these questions you have to have designed systems that don’t scale and experienced the problems and can discuss how you discovered it and how you today design systems differently as a result. I don’t see how people can easily fake these answers.
    Apr 3, 2019 0