Index

General System Design

1. Describe how you would design a URL shortening service like TinyURL.

   • Discuss scalability, database design, and handling of high traffic.

2. How would you design a distributed caching system?

   • Explore cache invalidation strategies, data consistency, and cache eviction policies.

3. Design an online bookstore, such as Amazon. What would be the core components?

   • Consider catalog management, user recommendations, and order processing.

4. How would you design a system to handle millions of requests per second for a popular social media platform?

   • Talk about load balancing, rate limiting, and distributed databases.

5. Design a real-time chat application like WhatsApp.

   • Discuss message delivery guarantees, handling offline users, and scaling the service.

Storage and Databases

1. How would you design a highly available and scalable file storage system like Dropbox?

   • Cover data partitioning, replication, and synchronization.

2. Design a database that can handle time-series data, like monitoring system metrics.

   • Consider data retention policies, compression techniques, and query optimization.

3. How would you design a logging system to collect and store logs from distributed systems?

   • Discuss log ingestion, indexing, and querying capabilities.

4. Design a notification system for a large-scale application.

   • Explore how to handle different notification channels, user preferences, and scalability.

5. How would you handle the design of a multi-tenant database for a SaaS application?

   • Consider isolation, performance optimization, and data security.

Performance and Scalability

1. Design a global content delivery network (CDN).

   • Discuss caching strategies, content distribution, and load balancing.

2. How would you design a system to process and analyze large streams of real-time data?

   • Talk about the use of stream processing frameworks, scalability, and fault tolerance.

3. Design a high-frequency trading system.

   • Consider low-latency requirements, data consistency, and risk management.

4. How would you design a recommendation system like those used by Netflix or YouTube?

   • Explore algorithms, user personalization, and data storage.

5. Design a large-scale search engine.

   • Discuss indexing, query processing, and ranking algorithms.

Security and Reliability

1. How would you design a secure payment processing system like PayPal?

   • Cover encryption, fraud detection, and regulatory compliance.

2. Design a system for reliable and secure software deployment in a microservices architecture.

   • Discuss continuous integration, deployment strategies, and rollback mechanisms.

3. How would you design a multi-factor authentication (MFA) system?

   • Consider user experience, security protocols, and failover strategies.

4. Design a fault-tolerant distributed system.

   • Explore consensus algorithms, replication, and failure detection.

5. How would you design a data backup and disaster recovery system for a cloud-based service?

   • Discuss backup frequency, data integrity, and recovery time objectives (RTOs).