How to crack System Design Interview?

The job market for Software Engineers is exploding! Particularly if you have a few years of experience under your belt. In the world of Software Engineering, System Design is the most sought-after skill, and thus one of the most important stages in the process, if you are applying for a Senior Engineer / Lead / Architect / or a more senior role.

But, before we get into the specifics, what exactly is a system design interview? What exactly do the interviewers expect from the candidates?

Expectations:

●You should be able to design a system that meets all of the requirements and scales well.

● Your design should be pluggable and should not prevent the addition of new features.

● You should be able to compare various options and select the best one.

● You should be familiar with the following system design fundamentals:

○ Load balancers

○ APIs

○ Caches

○ Databases

○ Network Protocols

○ Message queues

○ CDNs

○ High-level details about ML and Big data

○ CAP Theorem

○ Monitoring and analytics

These are the essential System design topics and concepts that every developer should be familiar with. If you are knowledgeable about these topics, you will undoubtedly perform well in system design interviews.

How Should You Prepare for System Design Interviews?

● Concepts for System Design

○ Load Balancer - A distributed system cannot exist without a load balancer to distribute incoming requests among various nodes.

○ Cache - Most systems have some read-heavy interactions, meaning that the user will access information frequently but will not update it as frequently. It makes sense to cache this information so that it can be easily retrieved without requiring a database lookup.

○  Database - Once again, no system can exist without some form of data storage. Whether you want to save files, images, product information, financial transactions, or simply dump all data from various user interactions for later analysis.

○ Message queues - What if you need to insert data into your database and a bulk insert is more efficient? To optimize your resources, it would make sense to simply keep track of these inserts in a message queue and perform 1 bulk insert rather than hundreds of 1-to-1 inserts.

○ CDNs enable us to keep a copy of our data in various data centers located closer to the users' locations in order to reduce latency.

○ Analytics and monitoring are essential components of any system you design. This is a hidden requirement; no one mentions it during the requirement gathering process, but every interviewer desires it.

● Learn from the titans of technology.

○ This is unlikely to help in the short term. However, in order to become an expert in System Design, in the long run, it is best to read the Tech blogs of various tech companies and see how they solve various technical problems.

○ This would provide a clear picture of the real problems they face and how they solve them creatively. Understanding these concepts will help you improve your system design skills while also keeping you up to date on the latest technological innovations.

End Notes

Practice is the key here. Find a good course or other online resources, it is up to you. But without practice, nothing can be achieved. Tutort Academy offers Data Structure Training in Bangalore and System Design Course for the working professionals.