Estimation Is Not Arithmetic: Find the Number That Decides the Design
Most candidates compute a storage total nobody needed, never the figure that changes the architecture. Pick the load-bearing number first; precision follows.
4 min read
Posts tagged Interviews
7 posts, newest first.
How to Disagree With Your Interviewer
Pushback is a probe, not a correction. Defend a decision without being defensive, hold a position with its cost attached, change your mind without collapsing.
5 min read
The Follow-Up Question Is the Interview
Candidates over-prepare the first ten minutes and under-prepare the next thirty: the five axes interviewers probe once the boxes exist, and an answer for each.
5 min read
The Read-Heavy Assumption
"It's read-heavy, so we'll add a cache" is the least examined sentence in system design. Four things that break it, and how to check it in an afternoon.
6 min read
The Requirements Phase Candidates Rush Through
Four clarifying questions branch a design; the rest are ritual. What to ask before drawing, and how to tell a load-bearing answer from one you'll never use.
5 min read
What Senior Sounds Like in a Design Interview
Two candidates, same components. The gap is rarely knowledge — it's unprompted trade-offs, naming non-goals, quantifying first and a qualified 'it depends'.
5 min read
Why Static Diagrams Fail You in System Design Interviews
A box-and-arrow diagram can't tell you whether your design works. Here's what interviewers are probing for, and why drawing tools can't help you practice it.
4 min read
