System Design Practice Questions
Design prompts to work through under time pressure, which is the part of preparation everyone skips. Reading designs builds recognition, producing them builds the skill being tested.
Platform
System Design
Design Gurus
Ongoing
Intermediate
Free
The gap this fills
Almost all system design preparation is passive. People read a dozen worked designs, feel prepared, and then discover in the interview that following an argument and constructing one are unrelated abilities.
How to use it
Set a timer for forty five minutes. Pick a prompt you have not read the solution to. Work it end to end on paper or a whiteboard, out loud, including the requirement questions you would ask a real interviewer. Only then compare against reference material.
Do this four or five times and the round stops being frightening, largely because you discover the first ten minutes are always the same regardless of the prompt.
Best for: the final phase of preparation, after the concepts are in place.
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