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How do I ace system design interviews?

What resources should I use to learn system design? I feel like there is so much information to learn. Is there a platform for system design like Leetcode?

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Venkata Sai Sandeep’s Answer

Hi Tony,

I learned system design from YouTube one of the channels is : https://www.youtube.com/@TechDummiesNarendraL

And from platform with paid resources: https://www.educative.io/courses/grokking-the-system-design-interview

Please try above and let me know if those works for your learning.

Thanks,
Sandeep
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Neil’s Answer

Hi Tony
Practice makes perfect and there's no substitute for hard work - you'll be fine!
As well as Leetcode and the suggestions made by others, how about making use of AI to test your knowledge. E.g. prompt ChatGPT with something like "ask me a challenging software design question around the topic of <your topic here>". You'll get a question to work on and you can use the AI to coach you on the answer, how to break down your approach etc.
Good luck!
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Ricardo’s Answer

Hi Tony,

Getting ready for system design interviews involves mixing theory, hands-on practice, and good communication. Here are some friendly tips and resources to help you succeed:

1. Understand the Basics: Make sure you know the core concepts of system design.
2. Practice Common Scenarios: Work on typical system design problems.
3. Structure Your Approach: Organize your thoughts and plans clearly.
4. Communicate Clearly: Explain your ideas in a simple and understandable way.
5. Prepare for Trade-offs: Be ready to discuss the pros and cons of your design choices.
6. Iterate and Adapt: Be open to feedback and willing to adjust your designs.

Helpful Resources:

1. Books:
- "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" by Martin Kleppmann: Learn about building strong and scalable systems.
- "System Design Interview – An Insider's Guide" by Alex Xu: Offers practical advice and common interview questions.

2. Online Courses:
- Coursera: Find courses on system design and architecture.
- Udacity: Their "Cloud DevOps Engineer" program covers system design basics.

3. YouTube Channels:
- Gaurav Sen: Great for system design interview tips and breakdowns.
- TechLead: Covers various tech topics, including system design.

4. Practice Platforms:
- Educative: Offers interactive lessons and exercises for system design interviews.
- LeetCode: Mainly for coding, but includes some system design problems.

5. Join Forums and Study Groups:
- Reddit: Check out r/cscareerquestions or r/programming for advice and discussions.
- Discord or Slack: Join groups focused on system design and interview prep.

While there's no exact equivalent to LeetCode for system design, these resources can help you build a solid foundation. You can also practice with peers or use platforms like Pramp or Interviewing.io for mock interviews.
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Johnny’s Answer

Having been on both sides of a systems design interview, as an interviewer and interviewee, one strategy I have is to look at existing software systems or applications around you, and think about how you would design them. Some design questions literally boil down to "Design Pinterest/Spotify/Reddit/InsertOtherAppHere from scratch." Challenge yourself with some constraints too: for example, how would you design it to run on underpowered IoT devices (i.e. limited compute power), or a super-secure isolated network (i.e. no cloud technologies), or a cloud compute platform (i.e. how well can it scale)?

When it comes to design, you'll find that rarely is there ever one correct solution. That's okay, interviewers aren't looking so much for whether you chose the one right approach, but that you can come up with an approach and defend it. Make sure you can articulate the tradeoffs you considered when answering the question, and the reasons why you think your design is best. Definitely consider the fundamentals like data structures and algorithms, and don't neglect real-world objectives like maintainability, scalability, and security too.

Johnny recommends the following next steps:

Look to existing software systems for inspiration and think about how you would design them.
Brush up on computer science fundamentals like data structures and algorithms, and real-world considerations like security.
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Mahan’s Answer

Read "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" to learn how to build scalable systems. It's a large book, but it's full of valuable insights.
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Justin’s Answer

This is sort of a trick question. There are various correct ways to design systems. You will never get the same system design if you have different engineers tackle the same problem.

Of course there are best practices, But really if you are getting interviewed on this, just think about how you would personally do it. I ask this question in an interview sometimes giving them some different elements and I want to see how they connect them together. I’m not looking for a specific answer more so just a thought process. I will question different areas about why they made a choice and see if they can defend it or if they are just copying and pasting from something they read. I would rather someone design a system that they can explain instead of copying and pasting.
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Shraddha’s Answer

To prepare for System Design Interviews, below is a guide that can help you,
#1. Understand the Goal
Design scalable and reliable systems
Communicate clearly
Think from a high-level and low-level perspective

#2. Master the Fundamentals
Learn key concepts:
Scalability & Performance, Load balancers, Caching, Databases, Database sharding, replication, and partitioning, CDNs,
Message queues, Rate limiting & throttling, Reliability, Consistency patterns, Failover strategies, Data modeling

#3. Use a Clear Framework
Clarify requirements, Design high-level architecture, Define data models, Address scalability & trade-offs

#4. Practice Common Systems

#5. Use Quality Resources

#6. Practice with Feedback
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