It’s crucial to crack system design interviews at Google, especially as you advance to senior software engineer roles. The difficulty of Google system design interview questions increases for senior software developer and management roles. Knowing how to create scalable designs that are detail-oriented and perform well will also help you advance and excel in management positions.
Whether you're designing your version of a popular website or just a feature, practicing the technical problems presented here will help you prepare for your system design interview. In this article, we'll go over some Google system design interview questions to help you ace your Google tech interview.
If you are preparing for a tech interview, check out our technical interview checklist, interview questions page, and salary negotiation e-book to get interview-ready! Also, read Amazon Coding Interview Questions, Facebook Coding Interview Questions to Nail Your Next Interview, and Google Coding Interview Questions for specific insights and guidance on Coding interview preparation.
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In this article, we’ll learn:
Here are a couple of sample Google system design interview questions and the approach you should take to solve them:
Q1. How would you design a URL shortening service?
When designing the URL shortening service, your solution should:
Q2. Design a traffic control system.
Your ideal traffic control system design here should:
Elaborate on all the considerations and trade-offs you’ve made when discussing your solution.
Q3. Design a social media with messaging board services like Quora or Reddit
For this Google system design interview question, your ideal solution should consider:
Q4. Design a search autocomplete feature.
This is a common Google system design interview question. To design a search autocomplete feature, your solution should consider:
Q5. How would you design a web crawler?
To design a web crawler, ideally, your solution would consider:
Learn How to Crack a System Design Interview here.
Here are some frequently asked Google system design interview questions:
Learn how to Answer System Design Interview Questions like “Design Twitter or Instagram” here.
Google system design interview can make or break your chances of getting that dream offer. Practice these questions to gain confidence in your prep and ace your system design interview. Here’s a complete Guide to Crack a System Design Interview to help you prepare for your Google system design interview.
Q1. What are some common system design interview question topics?
Common system design interview question topics include designing your version of a popular existing website or feature or designing popular features relevant to your target company or role.
Q2. How do you approach a system design interview?
During a system design interview, instead of jumping right into solving the problem, pause to think about scalability, performance, API, and any other relevant concerns your design should consider. Your approach should also involve validating any assumptions you make and focusing on your strengths.
Q3. How hard is the system design interview?
System design interviews become increasingly difficult as you advance to more senior software engineering roles where you must apply this knowledge to create your applications. For software engineer roles, the difficulty is easy to moderate and depends on how much work you'll be doing that requires this knowledge.
Q4. Does Google involve system design?
Of course! Creating products for a global user base using planet-scale data and computer systems is a routine job at a large-scale company like Google. Scalability then becomes an essential requirement.
Q5. What is system design?
Systems design can be viewed as an application of systems theory to product development. It is the process of defining the data, components, architecture, product design, modules, interfaces, and data for a system to satisfy specified requirements.
Whether you’re a coding engineer gunning for a software developer or software engineer role, a tech lead, or you’re targeting management positions at top companies, IK offers courses specifically designed for your needs to help you with your technical interview preparation!
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