Re:A Senior Engineer's Guide to the System Design Interview
by siggen on Friday March 03, 2023 @05:52AM
(#35008014)
Pretty much this. You can have experience and also perform well in a system design interview. However, passing some of these rounds involves chance. Some interviewers are looking for specific answers. For example, some interviewers are looking for you to be knowledgeable about recent papers specific to the heavy-hitters problem. Or the two ways to best support lynchpin objects. Itβs not so much as dropping well-known building blocks to construct a system but rather the interviewer asking you to design a system requiring specific characteristics you might not have any specialization in building.
Most interviewers are adversarial.
Let's be honest - if an interviewer wants you to pass a system design interview, they'll make it work. I see this with particular candidates all the time. If we want the person to make it through - we'll let them get through. If we don't want them to get through - no amount of correct and behaviorally appropriate answers are gonna make them get through.