How to Prepare for a System Design Interview
As an ex-Meta software engineer, I know how important system design preparation is for software engineering interviews. Whether you want to learn system design more efficiently or improve your interview performance through mock interviews, this guide will help you find the right resources.
This post contains my affiliated links. I may receive compensation if you make a qualifying purchase through my link.
If You Want to Learn System Design in a Structured Way
If you want to learn System Design interview preparation efficiently and systematically, then Alex Xu's ByteByteGo is a good fit for you. Course link: https://schelley.co/bytebytego. Use discount code schelley to get additional 10% discount (on top of ByteByteGo's 50% OFF launch sale discount).
The ByteByteGo System Design Interview course first shows you what a successful system design conversation generally looks like, what steps it includes, and what interviewers expect you to discuss. For example, interviewers usually expect you to clarify requirements first, then design the architecture diagram, design the database, and finally address various system bottlenecks. It is essentially a step-by-step design process, like drawing: first sketch the outline, then gradually fill in the details.
Next, the course gives an in-depth explanation of 25+ high-frequency system design questions. Each question follows the general design template introduced at the beginning, helping you repeatedly practice using the same thinking framework to solve different problems. One major strength of the course is that Alex provides multiple design options for each question and discusses the trade-offs of each option. For example, in the Proximity Service question — designing a Yelp-like system — Alex presents five approaches for indexing nearby businesses. The ability to proactively list multiple solutions and discuss trade-offs during an interview is a major plus in the eyes of interviewers.
ByteByteGo's link is https://schelley.co/bytebytego . Use discount code schelley to get additional 10% discount.
If You Want to Do System Design Mock Interviews
If you have already done most of your preparation and want to further improve your chances through mock interviews, you can use the Exponent platform to book a few mock interviews with senior interviewers from Google or Facebook. Link to Exponent: https://schelley.co/coach .
One of the biggest benefits of doing mock interviews with these experienced interviewers is that you can receive real feedback and suggestions from them. This can help you further improve your interview skills, especially your communication, adaptability during the interview, and control of the interview pacing. This can clearly increase your chance of passing the interview.
Exponent mock interview link is: https://schelley.co/coach. The link already includes a 10% discount.