System Design Interview

Ques: What is a System Design Interview!?! Do I need to prep for this in addition to practicing data structures and algorithms?

Answer: No, most likely.

Systems design interviews are great tools for leveling a candidate. Companies want to know that candidates who have a few (or many) years of experience cannot only code, but can also think in helpful ways. A more senior candidate will not only have to code, but may need to make architecture decisions.

There are usually no wrong answers for a systems design interview. Rather, it’s a way for a candidate to show what parts of the stack they specialize in and how deeply familiar they are with what they know.

This is the end all and be all of System Design Interview Github resources. If you use this, you will learn about system design. However, I don’t recommend trying to learn system design until you’ve build several larger projects or have been at your first job for at least six months. For a newbie who has to learn everything else, system design thinking can be a daunting task.

If you must know something about system design before going into an interview, but do not want to open pandora’s box, this Harvard CS50 lecture about scalability is a good intro.

If you want a basic intro beyond the Harvard lecture above, I recommend Systems Experts short explanation videos on key systems definitions and structures. No need to do the exercise. The videos will be a good start.

For when you are ready to start studying for systems interviews, I recommend Grokking Modern System Design Interview for Engineers & Managers. I don’t recommend this until you’ve been working as a programmer for at least a year.