Choosing Design Tradeoffs

When discussing design trade-offs in a system design interview, it's important to go beyond simply reciting known trade-offs. Instead, we take a more analytical approach:

• Consider non-functional requirements: We examine the impact of non-functional requirements, such as durability guarantees, on the system design and user experience.

• Analyze access patterns: We study how users interact with the system, considering the frequency of different API calls and their implications for optimization.

• Make informed decisions: Based on our analysis, we make conscious trade-offs, such as prioritizing read performance over immediate data consistency.

• Use standard terminology: We employ clear and concise engineering terms to ensure accurate communication and efficient use of interview time.

• Be open to feedback: We remain flexible and adjust our assumptions based on feedback from the interviewer, recognizing their expertise and knowledge of the system.

Gaurav Sen has conducted 1000s of system design interviews while working at Uber and building his YouTube channel to 500K+ subscribers. His platform InterviewReady combines video explainers, live Zoom classes, and an automated System Design Judge.