Google System Design Rubric in 2025

Google’s system design rubric in 2025 is the official evaluation framework Google uses to score candidates’ ability to architect scalable, reliable, and efficient systems in interviews.

When to Use

Use this rubric when preparing for Google system design interviews (commonly for mid to senior engineering or TPM roles). It guides you on what aspects (e.g. scalability, trade-offs, reliability) to emphasize.

Example

If asked to design YouTube, you’d clarify requirements, sketch a high-level architecture (load balancers, caching, storage), and justify decisions like SQL vs NoSQL or consistency vs availability.

Explore Grokking System Design Fundamentals, Grokking the System Design Interview, Grokking Database Fundamentals for Tech Interviews, Grokking the Coding Interview, or Mock Interviews with ex-FAANG engineers to deepen your preparation.

Why Is It Important

This rubric ensures consistent and fair evaluation across interviewers. It highlights key dimensions: clarity, architectural design, trade-off reasoning, scalability, reliability, and depth.

Interview Tips

Use a structured approach: clarify constraints, propose a high-level design, drill into components, and weave in trade-offs. Speak your thought process aloud. Ask clarifying questions. Practice with real prompts.

Trade-offs

Each decision trades something: choosing NoSQL boosts horizontal scalability but might weaken consistency; adding caches improves latency but adds complexity. The rubric expects you to weigh gains vs losses consciously.

Pitfalls

Don’t start coding or detailing before clarifying the problem. Avoid a “perfect design” tunnel vision—explore alternatives. Don’t skip trade-off discussion or ignore edge cases.