System Design

System Design

Senior-Level Answer Framework

  1. Requirements and non-goals
  2. Scale estimates
  3. API design
  4. Data model
  5. High-level architecture
  6. Deep dives
  7. Reliability and failure handling
  8. Consistency and correctness
  9. Observability
  10. Trade-offs and evolution

System Architecture

Use Mermaid diagrams when the system has multiple services, ownership boundaries, event streams, or data stores.

Interactive diagramZoom and click a node to inspect sub-logic.
flowchart LR
  Client[Client] --> API[API layer]
  API --> Service[Domain service]
  Service --> Events[Event stream]
  Events --> Analytics[Real-time analytics]
  Analytics --> OLAP[OLAP store]
  OLAP --> Dashboard[Dashboard]

Practice Areas