Don't Assume the Happy Path

In this segment, we focus on a common issue often seen with more junior engineers - Only considering the happy path when designing systems. Here’s the core points from the video:

• As engineers, our goal is to design systems that work reliably even when things go wrong. A system that fails 1% of the time is often unacceptable

• We need to anticipate and design for potential issues, not just ideal scenarios

• Proactively identifying weaknesses and planning solutions demonstrates strong engineering skills and foresight

• Documenting our design and potential problems as we go helps manage complexity and ensures we address edge cases effectively

• We go through a detailed example of all this with a ride-sharing system design problem

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