A Practical Framework for System Design Interviews

I explain a repeatable approach to clarifying requirements, structuring a design discussion, and communicating technical trade-offs in system design interviews. The guide applies that approach to music streaming and hotel reservations, with attention to capacity, data models, architecture, scaling, and reliability.

■ Interview framework
- Evaluation dimensions and a five-step process for organizing a 45–60-minute discussion
■ Music streaming platform
- Spotify-style requirements, capacity estimates, APIs, storage, architecture, and scaling
■ Hotel reservation system
- Booking flows, data models, search, concurrency, double-booking prevention, and reliability

Designed for engineers preparing for mid-level and senior interviews or building their system design fundamentals. Use the framework to practice a design, state your assumptions, and explain the trade-offs; the examples focus on these two systems rather than covering every system design topic.