System design rounds and the 30-design list
How to pass remote system design rounds — the 30-design list, the 45-minute structure (clarify → estimate → API → data → deep-dive → trade-offs), and the senior-signal moves.
System design rounds and the 30-design list
Status: Outline — full guide coming soon. Get notified when it ships →
What this covers
- The 30 canonical designs ranked by interview frequency
- The 45-minute structure: clarify (5) → estimate (5) → API (5) → data (5) → deep-dive (20) → trade-offs (5)
- The 4 senior-signal moves: pushback on a vague requirement, naming a non-obvious trade-off, picking a deliberately-boring tech, explicit non-goal
- How to handle "we don't have time for the deep dive" — interviewer steering
Why this matters for Indian devs going remote
System design is the round where Indian candidates get the biggest signal lift if prepared correctly, and the biggest discount if not. US interviewers expect senior candidates to push back on requirements, name trade-offs explicitly, and pick boring tech where it fits — exactly the moves Indian devs from execution-heavy backgrounds often skip.
Outline
The 30-design list
TODO — list grouped by primitive: read-heavy (URL shortener, news feed), write-heavy (rate-limiter, key-value), realtime (chat, collab), geo (Uber, Yelp), payments (checkout, idempotency).
The 45-minute structure
TODO — what each phase contains, timer rules, what to push back on if the interviewer skips ahead.
The 4 senior-signal moves
TODO — push back on vague req, name non-obvious trade-off, pick boring tech deliberately, explicit non-goal.
Handling interviewer steering
TODO — how to negotiate scope mid-interview without losing momentum.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Skipping the estimation phase — interviewers notice
- Picking trendy tech (Cassandra everywhere) without justification
- Drawing the whole architecture before the API is defined
Templates / examples
TODO — the 30-design tracker with self-rated confidence, a 45-min phase timer card, and 3 example whiteboard walkthroughs.
Related guides
- System design roundup + DDIA — the only path that works
- DSA / LeetCode rounds: the patterns that show up
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