System Design Series: Taro Playlists [Part 1] - What REAL System Design Looks Like

This video is the introduction to our system design series, a vital skill for senior software engineers to succeed, especially at FAANG and Big Tech in general.

Update: Playlist are now shipped within Taro! Try it out and see how the system design in this video brought this feature to life by visiting the full playlist for the series here: System Design Masterclass: Taro Playlists

Core points from the video:

• System design interviews are more analogous to your actual job than data structures and algorithms, but there are two big gaps:
  • Overly grandiose exercises - You will never get a technical problem on the scale of "Build all of Netflix", especially if you work at a Big Tech where you will get something much more local. Most of the biggest problems at these companies are already solved due to their maturity and plethora of software engineering talent.
  • Time constraint - Because interviews are time-boxed to 45 to 60 minutes, you have to do very broad strokes. In real life, system design should be much more thorough and has more steps and technical writing.
• To make this series as authentic as possible, we are going to be breaking down an actual upcoming feature within Taro: Playlists! On top of this:
  • This system design is exactly how Alex would design a system if he were still at Meta/Robinhood as a tech lead. While Taro doesn't need something this granular as a startup, this series simulates many aspects of a more mature company.
  • Alex has made a very thorough 9-page system design doc going through every aspect of the system.