What comes under system design interview?

System design refers to the process of defining the architecture, modules, interfaces, and data for a system to satisfy specified requirements. It is a broad field that encompasses several components necessary to create, manage, and scale effective systems. Here’s a breakdown of what typically comes under system design in software engineering:

1. Architectural Design

High-Level Design (HLD): This involves defining the overall system architecture, identifying major components, and their interactions. It addresses how the system will be divided into modules, the data flow between these modules, and the basic process design.
Low-Level Design (LLD): This is more detailed and focuses on the implementation specifics of the system. It includes defining the actual logic for each module, detailed class diagrams with all attributes and methods, database schema design, and the complete processing logic.

2. Data Design

Database Design: Involves designing the data storage, retrieval, and update mechanisms, as well as database schemas, including tables, relationships, and keys.
Data Distribution: Plans how data is distributed and managed across different locations, especially in distributed systems.

3. Interface Design

Internal Interfaces: Between various components of the system, detailing how modules interact and communicate with each other.
External Interfaces: Between the system and other systems or between the system and its users, defining how the system exposes functionality to other systems or interacts with users.

4. Module Design

Functional Modules: Designing individual modules that handle specific aspects of system functionality, focusing on encapsulating functionality into discrete units.
Service Modules: In architectures like microservices, focusing on small, independently deployable services that work together.

5. Infrastructure and Deployment Design

Hardware Requirements: Specifying the server configurations, storage needs, network architecture, and other hardware resources required to support the system.
Deployment Architecture: Designing how software is deployed to different environments, including integration with existing environments.

6. Scalability and Performance

Load Balancing: Techniques and tools to distribute load effectively across multiple servers or resources.
Caching Strategies: Designing caching mechanisms to improve system performance and reduce load.
Concurrency Management: Techniques for managing access to shared resources in a multi-threaded environment.

7. Security Design

Authentication and Authorization: Ensuring that the system securely manages user identities and controls access to resources.
Data Security: Safeguards for protecting data both in transit and at rest, including encryption strategies and compliance with security standards.

8. Reliability and Fault Tolerance

Redundancy: Designing duplicate system components that take over when one component fails.
Failover Mechanisms: Automated systems for switching to a redundant or standby system upon the failure of the currently active system.

9. Maintainability and Extensibility

Modularity: Designing the system in a modular way to ensure that individual modules can be updated or replaced independently.
Documentation: Comprehensive documentation that supports future maintenance and enhancement efforts.

10. Cost Analysis

Resource Allocation: Estimating and planning the cost related to infrastructure, development, and maintenance of the system.
Trade-offs: Analyzing trade-offs between different architectural choices in terms of cost, complexity, and benefit.

Conclusion

System design covers a wide range of disciplines and considerations, all aimed at creating a system that not only meets the user's needs but also is robust, scalable, maintainable, and secure. Effective system design involves deep technical knowledge, strategic planning, and foresight to accommodate future changes and growth.

TAGS

System Design Interview

CONTRIBUTOR

Design Gurus Team

GET YOUR FREE

Coding Questions Catalog