"Approach
Clarify the question
Define deaf --> unable to hear, but can communicate via sign language, lip read and use all other senses
Define fire alarm --> for residential use, it notifies occupants of smoke and potential fires and alerts fire department to check in and/or come over
Define constraints --> budgetary constraint, design should be user-friendly and convenient
Define goals --> get folks out of harm's way quickly and notify fire department to c"
Bella R. - "Approach
Clarify the question
Define deaf --> unable to hear, but can communicate via sign language, lip read and use all other senses
Define fire alarm --> for residential use, it notifies occupants of smoke and potential fires and alerts fire department to check in and/or come over
Define constraints --> budgetary constraint, design should be user-friendly and convenient
Define goals --> get folks out of harm's way quickly and notify fire department to c"See full answer
"Candidate: Before we go ahead I have a few clarifying questions, I’d like to ask.
Interviewer: Sure.
Candidate: Just to clarify, we would like to improve WhatsApp and our goal is to earn revenue from it. Is that true?
Interviewer: Yes, that is true.
Candidate: Great, WhatsApp currently has 3 different plans.
1) Private WhatsApp
2) WhatsApp Business for small B2C businesses
3) WhatsApp Business API, for medium and large B2C businesses.
I know that the 3’rd category"
Jasmin R. - "Candidate: Before we go ahead I have a few clarifying questions, I’d like to ask.
Interviewer: Sure.
Candidate: Just to clarify, we would like to improve WhatsApp and our goal is to earn revenue from it. Is that true?
Interviewer: Yes, that is true.
Candidate: Great, WhatsApp currently has 3 different plans.
1) Private WhatsApp
2) WhatsApp Business for small B2C businesses
3) WhatsApp Business API, for medium and large B2C businesses.
I know that the 3’rd category"See full answer
"100 people per floor x 100 floors = 10,000 people. Uses of the elevator per day per person: 4, so 40,000 rides per day. Average length of a ride = 50 floors, assuming each ride is to the lobby. Target time per ride: 1 minute. Assuming 80% of traffic occurs during four rush hours, then 32,000 rides must happen in that time, so 133 per minute. Assuming six people per ride then you get 22 elevators required to operate during peak times.
I reality you have to treat this as a Poisson arrival process"
Marcos P. - "100 people per floor x 100 floors = 10,000 people. Uses of the elevator per day per person: 4, so 40,000 rides per day. Average length of a ride = 50 floors, assuming each ride is to the lobby. Target time per ride: 1 minute. Assuming 80% of traffic occurs during four rush hours, then 32,000 rides must happen in that time, so 133 per minute. Assuming six people per ride then you get 22 elevators required to operate during peak times.
I reality you have to treat this as a Poisson arrival process"See full answer
"I was working for my friend building streams at venues across the Chicago land area for FGC (fighting game tournaments), I adjusted and engineered his equipment to be set up permanently that's until covid came around at least. I used OBS to give visual appearances to stream watchers. So we're talking about subscribe, follow, and donation notifications and things of that nature for viewers to know they contributed in one of those ways. I set up proper sign-up scheduling for participants to lock t"
Ayinde B. - "I was working for my friend building streams at venues across the Chicago land area for FGC (fighting game tournaments), I adjusted and engineered his equipment to be set up permanently that's until covid came around at least. I used OBS to give visual appearances to stream watchers. So we're talking about subscribe, follow, and donation notifications and things of that nature for viewers to know they contributed in one of those ways. I set up proper sign-up scheduling for participants to lock t"See full answer
"Step 1: Clarifying the Problem Scope
Assumptions and basic system requirements:
Cashless payments: The machine supports cashless payment methods like credit cards, mobile wallets, or NFC-based payments (e.g., Apple Pay, Google Pay).
Multiple candy options: The machine offers different types of candy.
Inventory management: The system tracks the stock of candy in real-time.
User interface: A display screen for users to select the type of candy, make payments, an"
Ramendra S. - "Step 1: Clarifying the Problem Scope
Assumptions and basic system requirements:
Cashless payments: The machine supports cashless payment methods like credit cards, mobile wallets, or NFC-based payments (e.g., Apple Pay, Google Pay).
Multiple candy options: The machine offers different types of candy.
Inventory management: The system tracks the stock of candy in real-time.
User interface: A display screen for users to select the type of candy, make payments, an"See full answer
"In the Slack system design interview, I proposed a WebSocket-based architecture for real-time messaging, supported by a network of distributed chat servers. To track user connections and route messages efficiently, I leveraged ZooKeeper as a service registry and designed peer-to-peer communication between servers.
For the data layer:
• I used PostgreSQL to manage relational data such as users and chat participants.
• Cassandra was chosen for high-throughput, scalable message storage with dura"
Aneesh M. - "In the Slack system design interview, I proposed a WebSocket-based architecture for real-time messaging, supported by a network of distributed chat servers. To track user connections and route messages efficiently, I leveraged ZooKeeper as a service registry and designed peer-to-peer communication between servers.
For the data layer:
• I used PostgreSQL to manage relational data such as users and chat participants.
• Cassandra was chosen for high-throughput, scalable message storage with dura"See full answer
"Clarification Questions
What does it mean by Next Gen Elevator? → Next Gen Elevator means Elevator using new technologies.
Where is this Elevator situated? → Skyscrapers, Commercial Buildings, Residential Buildings or Elevators to Space? Assuming it’s Commercial Buildings.
What is the Goal of Making Next Gen Elevators? Is it improving Safety? User Experience? Assuming it’s User Experience
_Goal: To design an elevator using emerging technologies to improve user experience in a C"
Anonymous Muskox - "Clarification Questions
What does it mean by Next Gen Elevator? → Next Gen Elevator means Elevator using new technologies.
Where is this Elevator situated? → Skyscrapers, Commercial Buildings, Residential Buildings or Elevators to Space? Assuming it’s Commercial Buildings.
What is the Goal of Making Next Gen Elevators? Is it improving Safety? User Experience? Assuming it’s User Experience
_Goal: To design an elevator using emerging technologies to improve user experience in a C"See full answer
"Why do we have FB dating? How does it fit within FB's mission of connecting people and building community?
Research shows that lonely people have worse health outcomes, get sick more easily, die faster, etc. There are many ways to solve for loneliness. FB already has Groups which connect people based on shared interests/hobbies. FB also has Messengers and other apps that help you connect with people you already know. Dating is an important way FB can help people form more intimate connections a"
Patrick B. - "Why do we have FB dating? How does it fit within FB's mission of connecting people and building community?
Research shows that lonely people have worse health outcomes, get sick more easily, die faster, etc. There are many ways to solve for loneliness. FB already has Groups which connect people based on shared interests/hobbies. FB also has Messengers and other apps that help you connect with people you already know. Dating is an important way FB can help people form more intimate connections a"See full answer
"Please Review. Thanks In advance!
Situation: ABC Product Planners asked me to help them to migrate their one Excel-based Macro into the web application. After having a few rounds of interviews with Product Planners, I realized that the macro was not able to solve their current problem due to its limitation and business teams were convinced that it couldn't be resolved completely. The key challenges they had with their current macro-based solutions were:
It was able to compute all bui"
Books' B. - "Please Review. Thanks In advance!
Situation: ABC Product Planners asked me to help them to migrate their one Excel-based Macro into the web application. After having a few rounds of interviews with Product Planners, I realized that the macro was not able to solve their current problem due to its limitation and business teams were convinced that it couldn't be resolved completely. The key challenges they had with their current macro-based solutions were:
It was able to compute all bui"See full answer
"Gotcha, so I understand that our goal is to improve Google Docs and identify key metrics.
Questions
Is the purpose of these metrics to quantify the performance specifically of the features we suggest? Or Docs as a broader product and its impact on the Google ecosystem? Let's assume the former.
Is there any goal we are trying to improve for Google Docs? Let's assume we want to increase usage, and have Docs also drive productivity suite subscriptions.
Are there any specific"
Daniel P. - "Gotcha, so I understand that our goal is to improve Google Docs and identify key metrics.
Questions
Is the purpose of these metrics to quantify the performance specifically of the features we suggest? Or Docs as a broader product and its impact on the Google ecosystem? Let's assume the former.
Is there any goal we are trying to improve for Google Docs? Let's assume we want to increase usage, and have Docs also drive productivity suite subscriptions.
Are there any specific"See full answer
"I was working for an Insurance company and I was the lead PM responsible for delivering HIPAA 5010 835 (statement of bill claims received vs paid) transactions to healthcare providers/hospitals For this initiative as a PM, I was responsible to create and prioritize features around file creation.
I collaborated with cross-functional teams, engineers, DevOps. First I conducted sessions with claims adjudication, SFTP file transfer, security, and privacy, clearinghouse, third-party vendors and ensu"
S P. - "I was working for an Insurance company and I was the lead PM responsible for delivering HIPAA 5010 835 (statement of bill claims received vs paid) transactions to healthcare providers/hospitals For this initiative as a PM, I was responsible to create and prioritize features around file creation.
I collaborated with cross-functional teams, engineers, DevOps. First I conducted sessions with claims adjudication, SFTP file transfer, security, and privacy, clearinghouse, third-party vendors and ensu"See full answer
"Since the problem asks for a O(logN) solution, I have to assume that the numbers are already sorted, meaning the same number are adjacent to each other, the value of the numbers shouldn't matter, and they expect us to use Binary Search.
First, we should analyze the pattern of a regular number array without a single disrupter.
Index: 0 1 2 3 4. 5 6. 7. 8. 9
Array:[1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6]
notice the odd indexes are always referencing the second of the reoccurring numbers and t"
Bamboo Y. - "Since the problem asks for a O(logN) solution, I have to assume that the numbers are already sorted, meaning the same number are adjacent to each other, the value of the numbers shouldn't matter, and they expect us to use Binary Search.
First, we should analyze the pattern of a regular number array without a single disrupter.
Index: 0 1 2 3 4. 5 6. 7. 8. 9
Array:[1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6]
notice the odd indexes are always referencing the second of the reoccurring numbers and t"See full answer
"Defining the product
Spotify is a music & podcast streaming application and by podcast, we are talking about the audio podcasts which creators upload on the app.
Clarifying Questions & respective assumptions
Context
Who are we improving the product for? Creators or Consumers?
What are the current features for consumers in brief?
Each podcast has episodes, about(audio trailer), more like this
Why are we doing this?
Where are we planning to l"
Shubh - "Defining the product
Spotify is a music & podcast streaming application and by podcast, we are talking about the audio podcasts which creators upload on the app.
Clarifying Questions & respective assumptions
Context
Who are we improving the product for? Creators or Consumers?
What are the current features for consumers in brief?
Each podcast has episodes, about(audio trailer), more like this
Why are we doing this?
Where are we planning to l"See full answer
"Define: What is the Verified Badge Product?
The Meta verified badge is a product displayed alongside a verified user’s profile across all Meta platforms.
Mission: Why Build the Verified Badge Product?
Trust and Authenticity: Meta's primary reason for introducing a Verified Badge is to enhance trust and authenticity across the platform. By confirming the identities of key figures and influencers, Meta can assure users that their interactions are with genuine profiles, no"
realkimchi - "Define: What is the Verified Badge Product?
The Meta verified badge is a product displayed alongside a verified user’s profile across all Meta platforms.
Mission: Why Build the Verified Badge Product?
Trust and Authenticity: Meta's primary reason for introducing a Verified Badge is to enhance trust and authenticity across the platform. By confirming the identities of key figures and influencers, Meta can assure users that their interactions are with genuine profiles, no"See full answer
"Around mid-2023, I was tasked with investigating the feasibility of selling access to our site to third-party vendors who wanted to use bots to automate processes for their clients. Some initial work had been done on this but it was very high-level and very little data or analysis had actually been done. When I was tasked with this the idea was to sell access to a special header that would allow vendors to by-pass our F5 Shape implementation, a bot defense tool. From a business and security pers"
John F. - "Around mid-2023, I was tasked with investigating the feasibility of selling access to our site to third-party vendors who wanted to use bots to automate processes for their clients. Some initial work had been done on this but it was very high-level and very little data or analysis had actually been done. When I was tasked with this the idea was to sell access to a special header that would allow vendors to by-pass our F5 Shape implementation, a bot defense tool. From a business and security pers"See full answer
"Here’s my general framework/formula/structure:
Clarify - What do I need to know to make the question/prompt a little less ambiguous? What assumptions do I need to establish with the interviewer?
Example: I would probably ask - Are we focused on professional/gig musicians who do music for a living? Or casual hobbyist musicians who make music for fun? Or I may want to know if I should focus on building on to a current Meta product like Instagram/FB Reels or think independently of th"
Chloe E. - "Here’s my general framework/formula/structure:
Clarify - What do I need to know to make the question/prompt a little less ambiguous? What assumptions do I need to establish with the interviewer?
Example: I would probably ask - Are we focused on professional/gig musicians who do music for a living? Or casual hobbyist musicians who make music for fun? Or I may want to know if I should focus on building on to a current Meta product like Instagram/FB Reels or think independently of th"See full answer