This was my first time going after “senior” titles, and was also the first time I’d seen system design interviews. They only cropped up in final rounds. I had them at Amazon, Uber, and three other companies.

I was supremely nervous about them before but I actually wound up doing really well (save aforementioned DB crap). It was a chance to talk about my personal niches, like accessibility and load times.

Frustratingly, every single one was wildly different. I found that approx. 0 of the “cracking the system design” stuff I read beforehand helped in anyway.