Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp all have 1bn+ monthly active users. Therefore, Facebook machine learning engineers need to be able to understand and work with systems that are highly scalable. The coding questions weve covered above usually have a single optimal solution. But the system design questions youll be asked are typically more open-ended and feel more like a discussion.
This is the part of the interview where you want to show that you can both be creative and structured at the same time. Below are the most common system design questions asked in Facebook software engineer interviews, according to data from Glassdoor.
As with coding interviews, the system design questions youd face as a machine learning engineer should be similar to those asked in normal Facebook software engineer interviews. As a result, wed recommend using the below questions in your preparation. For more questions, take a look at our list of 31 system design interview questions.
Top 10 system design questions asked at Facebook
How would you design Instagram / Instagram Stories
How would you design Facebook
How would you design Facebook Messenger
How would you design Facebooks live update of comments on posts
How would you design an online collaborative editor (e.g. Google Docs)
How would you design a typehead feature (e.g. Google search autocomplete)
How would you design Twitters trending topics
How would you design a distributed Botnet
How would you design a system that can handle millions of card transactions per hour
How would you design security for Facebooks corporate network from scratch (Security team interview)
Nick CamilleriHead of Career Skills Development & Coaching*Based on past data of successful IK students
Our tried & tested strategy for cracking interviews
The 4 areas you must prepare for
How you can accelerate your learnings
Facebook consistently features on the âBest Places to Workâ list. This comes as no surprise, as Facebookâs core values are at the heart of its work culture. Software developers, engineering managers, tech leads all consider Facebook to be one of the most coveted companies to work for.Â
Naturally, interviews at Facebook are tough and grueling. One of the many rounds of the Facebook interview process is the system design interview. A system design interview will require you to design a high-level architecture for a software system. In the simplest terms, the purpose of every system design will be to solve a problem.Â
In this article, weâve put together all the things you need to know about Facebookâs system design interviews:Â
Facebook Interview Process
Preparing for the Facebook System Design Interview
Commonly Asked Facebook System Design Interview Questions
Practice Problems for Facebook System Design Interview
Simplifying Your Approach to a System Design Problem
7 Tips for Nailing Your Facebook System Design Interview
FAQs on Facebook System Design Interview
7 Tips for Nailing Your Facebook System Design Interview
Think about the complex systems you have already built and work on how you can improve them.Â
Look at Facebook and practice rethinking and redesigning Facebook features that already exist.Â
Read up on engineering articles and blogs about various approaches that FAANG companies take. See which design approaches worked for them, which ones didnât, and why.Â
Your interviewer will give you a vague system design interview question. Ask for details and specifics so that your design is as close to their expectations as possible. Ask questions about system requirements here. Determine what customer base and scale youâre building for.
Do not get bogged down by the magnitude of the problem you are given. No one really expects you to design Twitter or an entire search engine in 45 minutes. The main idea here is to discuss the problem with you, come up with a high-level architecture that addresses the requirements of the system design problem given to you, and discuss possible bottlenecks and solutions.
Remember that when it comes to Facebook interview system design questions, there is no one right answer. The interviewer wants to see how you apply strategy and knowledge to solve a problem.
Start timing yourself when you practice system design questions. Much attention is given to how you manage your time and how efficiently you come up with the solution.
ASIC Design Interview Questions: Divide Clock Frequency by N