I recently read “System Design interview volume 1” by Alex Xu from the ByteByteGo youtube channel and wanted to take some time to write a quick review and share some tips on system design interviews.
The book was a fantastic read with an easy to follow methodology to approach system design interviews, many commmon system design examples and walkthrough solutions and addresses the essential building technologies that you can pull together in a system. It is quite a comprehensive read and I would recommend for both people who are preparing for a system design interview BUT also for engineers looking to improve their system design practices in general.
Here are some extra tips for your upcoming interviews:
1. Know your cloud technologies.
This is not necessary but I think is the practical application of system design. By applying and actually building your systems and knowing how to build them practically allows you to gain a more intimate understanding of the black boxes you might mention in a system design interview. This will be obvious in interviews when you discuss details and are capable of deep diving into the blackboxes that are traditionally brought up in system design interviews.
2. Practice common back-of-the-envelope calculations.
Know your commmon calculations. Honestly for myself before reading the System Design Interview book I did not realise how important this might be and also the specific important areas where calculations would be necessary. I believe their is still a bit of an art to deciding where to focus your attention during an interview but asking your interviewer and working with them is one of the best approaches you can take.
3. Practice the common questions.
Obviously you can not prepare for every scenario and interviewers will always be creating new problems but I have heard and seen countless times that they will ask common problems. It does not hurt to be prepared for these designs as it is common practice for the problems to be updated with a ‘twist’ to make it slightly more unique. Both of the “System Design Interview” books (vol. 1 and vol. 2) provide plenty of the common problems to practice and learn from so I highly recommend them.
Thanks for reading!
This has been a very quick review of the System Design Interview books by Alex Xu as well as some tips for your upcoming system design interview.
Thanks again for reading and feel to leave any thoughts in the comments!
Follow me for more book reviews and quick tips I pick up along the way as I continue my book-per-week reading journey.
For my full reading list: https://github.com/SeanOverton/books-i-have-read/blob/main/books.yml
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