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Hello friends, if you are preparing for coding interviews but are wondering how to tackle the crucial System design topic and are looking for step-by-step guidance, the right approach, tips, and questions, then you have come to the right place.
In this article, I will share a complete guide to cracking System design interviews.
The Software Engineering job market is on fire! Especially if you have a couple of years of experience under your belt.
And in the world of Software Engineering, *if you are applying for a Senior Engineer / Lead / Architect, or a more senior role, System Design is the most sought-after skill, and hence one of the most important rounds in the whole process.
If you mess this up, nothing else would matter. If you get it right, though, you're looking at a raise of at least tens of thousands of dollars annually.
So how do you ace your system design round? Well, here's what I did while preparing for my interviews with Facebook, Google, and Amazon, and it worked out rather well.
I did end up creating a checklist for myself, which got me through most of my rounds, so if you follow a similar path, you should be able to come up with something that works for you as well.
Before we get into the details, though, what is a system design interview? What do the interviewers really expect from the candidates?
, .
These are actually the essential System design topics and concepts every developer should prepare. If you have knowledge about these topics, then you will definitely do well on system design interviews.
By the way, don't get overwhelmed by the number of topics. Most of the good System design courses, like cover all these topics. This course by Design Gurus has helped 60k+ subscribers to crack their system design interview (SDI).
How to prepare for System Design Interviews?
While many things have changed in the last couple of years, the System design interview has also changed with more focus on API, performance, and Microservices.
Anyway, here is a simple four-step process to ace any System Design round, not just this year but also in the coming years.
- Master Essential System Design Concepts like Scalability, Consistency, Caching, Database sharding, and replication, etc.
- Learn from the tech giants by reading their blogs, like Uber and Netflix
- Practice System design questions like designing YouTube, WhatsApp, etc. on sites like , or to distribute the incoming requests among various nodes. This ensures proper resource utilization and that there is no single point of failure in your system. Here's how , which is quite important from an interview point of view. This question has already been asked of me a couple of times in interviews.
2. Caching
If you have ever done performance improvement, then you know that the has a lot of information on Caching strategies and how to effectively use caches. You can refer them to learn more.
. If you want to learn further, you can refer to that as well.
, which is the backbone for many Microservices.
What if you need to insert information in your . If you want to learn about not just message queue but other essential System design topics, this is one resource which I personally use.
.
6. Analytics and Monitoring
This is something that is needed in every system you create. This is a hidden requirement; no one calls it out in the requirement gathering, but every interviewer wants this.
User logs in or logs out? Wish listed an item? Payment failed? It is all the information for us! Anything of importance happens, fire an event, and save it in your messaging queue.
You can perform real-time analytics on data or just dump it in a , Prometheus can help you with Analytics and monitoring, and also to impress your interviewer during a system design interview.
Alex Xu has also shared a lot of good information on Monitoring on his . You can refer to them as well.
and when they are relevant, what might be the compromises you might need to make, etc.
The first step is to know about all these concepts. And by knowing concepts, I don't mean just some theoretical knowledge of what these are, but more practical hands-on experience about what should be used when.
You need to know things like:
- Which is the best alternative to choose from, given the use case.
- What are the tradeoffs that you need to consider while making these decisions?
- Best practices for certain use-cases.
To know most of these things, I'll recommend going through
2. Learn from the tech giants like Uber and Netflix
This is probably not going to help in the short term. But in the long term, to become an expert in System Design, it's best to look at the Tech blogs of various tech companies and see how they are solving various technical problems.
This would paint a clear picture of the real problems that they face and how innovatively they solve them.
Understanding these things would help you become better at system design and also keep you up to date with the latest innovations in tech.
Some of the best blogs to follow are:
-
- , (Ex Amazon Hiring Manager). This is one of the best resources to learn System design for interviews.
-
-
- Airbnb System Design
- Uber System Design
- and some more problems, which has helped many people crack their interviews for companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.
out there. I have shared a few that discuss some of the most popular system design problems in detail.
Once you go through a few of them, you will start noticing a pattern and will soon be able to come up with solutions on your own.
You should also get a better understanding of how your systems are designed in your organization. How are the other teams doing things? What factors do they take into consideration?
The next best thing is to practice with a friend. Make sure you also go through a few , , is like the Airbnb for mock interviews and career coaching. It connects job seekers with seasoned FAANG interviewers who provide invaluable feedback, getting you ready for real-life interviews.
Many of my friends, readers, and colleagues, along with numerous job seekers, have already reaped the benefits of this platform.
What makes Codemia stand out?
1. Affordability: The average cost per session is significantly lower compared to other platforms.
2. Expert interviewers: Veterans from FAANG and top-tier companies bring years of experience, offering priceless feedback that truly makes a difference.
3. Direct communication: Job seekers can directly message interviewers to address any questions or concerns, such as experience sharing or rescheduling, ensuring better preparation for both parties.
4. All-in-one tools: Meetapro equips you with the essential tools for an effective interview session, including recording options for post-session review.
That's why I highly recommend adding
Common Mistakes to Avoid on System Design Interviews
There are two important things you can do to become successful in life: do what other successful candidates do and avoid the mistakes of those who failed. Some of the most common mistakes that I have seen people make are:
- Not driving the interview
- Not asking questions
- Not structuring the interview properly
- Running out of time
- Not considering the requirements
- Not exploring all the alternate design options
All these mistakes can be easily avoided by having a few mock interviews with someone who knows System Design well. And time your interviews. The target must be to solve within 40 minutes, including time for some discussion.
Well, that's it, folks. **With this 4-step process, you'll soon be ready to ace any of your system design interviews! Hopefully, this should be a good starting point for you. Happy learning!
For mock interviews, you can also check out that offers peer-to-peer interviews for software engineers in data structures and system design.
, which cost around $239, and you get a chance to be interviewed by experts and a former Facebook Engineer and founder of DesignGuru.io
Best System Design Interview Resources
If you need more resources like books and online courses to prepare for the System Design Interview, here are my recommendations:
Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like this System design interview roadmap, questions, tips, and resources, then please share it with your friends and colleagues who are preparing for tech interviews.
If you have any questions or feedback, please drop a note.
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