After giving an overview of the design, it’s necessary to delve deep into the important components of the system, justify your design choices, do trade-off analysis, point out circumstances under which the system may fail and how to deal with them. The interviewer would first wait for the candidate to take a lead, but if they don’t feel satisfied, they may directly ask questions to get more in-depth answers (especially in case of recent college graduates).

Let’s look at some of the important signals that the interviewer is using as a barometer to assess the candidate:

• Technical Knowledge
  • The interviewer is keen to see the candidate dig deep into the key concepts, showcase past experience in making important design decisions and make comparisons with other relevant frameworks.
  • Candidates talking about their motivations for the design and pointing out possible drawbacks is a good trait.
• Trade-off analysis
  • Trade-off analysis is a critical aspect of system design, and it involves evaluating and making decisions about competing factors or choices that have an impact on the design and performance of a system.
  • It’s important for candidates to list down viable alternatives, talk about their pros and cons, before explaining the reasons behind their choice.
  • Doing trade-off analysis well shows that you are making informed decisions that align with the project’s goals and requirements. It helps strike a balance between conflicting factors, ensuring that the resulting system meets its objectives effectively and efficiently.
• Potential points of failure
  • It’s vital to identify common issues in your design and address them early, without the interviewer pointing it out.
  • It’s crucial to identify and address potential points of failure to ensure the system’s reliability and availability.
  • You should design with failure in mind to build robust, resilient systems.