System Design

• System design interviews require the interviewee to have a lot of knowledge about systems, and about how to build robust, functional, and scalable systems

System Design Basics

• Consider 3 things when designing a large system

  1. What are the different architectural pieces that can be used?
  2. How do these pieces work with each other?
  3. How can we best utilize these pieces: what are the right tradeoffs?

• Importance for good system design:

  • Investing in scaling before it is needed is generally not a smart business proposition
  • Putting forethought into the design can save valuable time and resources in the future