In our 4-step system design interview framework, the second step is “Suggest Excessive-level Design and Get Purchase-in”. The target of this step is to give you a high-level design diagram for the issue at hand and set up a standard floor for additional exploration.
It’s a pink flag to get carried away this early within the session with untimely optimizations. For instance, some candidates love to speak about caching and sharding on this step.
Optimizations are difficult and costly. They require strong justifications for the added complexity. At this early stage, the justifications are sometimes hand-wavy. The added complexity distracts the interviewer and prevents them from understanding the high-level design.
Give attention to the duty at hand. If you end up getting distracted by optimization concepts, desk them. Make a listing of concepts to revisit within the deep dive part.
Preserve the high-level design easy. This step ought to take about quarter-hour.
What are another untimely optimizations that may be tabled?
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