Intermediate 1

Question 1

What is the primary function of Instagram?

Answer 1

Instagram is a social media platform focused on photo and video sharing, allowing users to connect through visual content.

Question 2

What are the advantages of Instagram’s design?

Answer 2

High user engagement through visual content, scalable architecture, and integration with other platforms.

Question 3

What are the disadvantages of Instagram’s design?

Answer 3

Challenges with content moderation, storage management for media, and maintaining user privacy.

Question 4

What are best practices in designing Instagram?

Answer 4

Implementing efficient media storage solutions, scalable feed generation, and robust user authentication mechanisms.

Question 5

What are common use cases for Instagram?

Answer 5

Photo and video sharing, Stories, Reels, direct messaging, and influencer marketing.

Question 6

How does Instagram’s design impact system architecture?

Answer 6

Requires handling large volumes of media content, real-time updates, and personalized feed generation.

Question 7

Give an example of a system similar to Instagram.

Answer 7

Pinterest, which also focuses on visual content sharing and discovery.

Question 8

What are the architectural components of Instagram?

Answer 8

Client applications, API gateway, microservices for user management, media processing, feed generation, and databases for metadata and media storage.

Question 9

How can performance be ensured in Instagram?

Answer 9

Using Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) for media delivery, caching mechanisms, and load balancing.

Question 10

How can fault tolerance be added to Instagram?

Answer 10

Implementing redundancy, failover strategies, and monitoring systems to detect and recover from failures.

Question 11

How is monitoring and debugging handled in Instagram?

Answer 11

Utilizing logging, metrics collection, alerting systems, and real-time monitoring dashboards.

Question 12

What is a real-world tradeoff in Instagram’s design?

Answer 12

Balancing high-quality media content with storage and bandwidth limitations.

Question 13

What is a common interview question on Instagram’s design?

Answer 13

Design a scalable photo-sharing platform with features like user feeds and real-time updates.

Question 14

What is a potential gotcha in Instagram’s design?

Answer 14

Ensuring consistency in user feeds across distributed systems and handling media uploads efficiently.

Question 15

What is the primary function of Twitter?

Answer 15

Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows users to post and interact with short messages called tweets.

Question 16

What are the advantages of Twitter’s design?

Answer 16

Real-time information dissemination, simplicity in user interaction, and scalability.

Question 17

What are the disadvantages of Twitter’s design?

Answer 17

Challenges with content moderation, handling high traffic during events, and ensuring data consistency.

Question 18

What are best practices in designing Twitter?

Answer 18

Implementing efficient tweet storage, scalable user timelines, and robust notification systems.

Question 19

What are common use cases for Twitter?

Answer 19

News updates, public discussions, customer service interactions, and social networking.

Question 20

How does Twitter’s design impact system architecture?

Answer 20

Requires handling high write and read throughput, real-time data processing, and scalable storage solutions.

Question 21

Give an example of a system similar to Twitter.

Answer 21

Mastodon, a decentralized microblogging platform.

Question 22

What are the architectural components of Twitter?

Answer 22

User service, tweet service, timeline service, search service, and databases for storing user data and tweets.

Question 23

How can performance be ensured in Twitter?

Answer 23

Using caching for timelines, sharding databases, and employing message queues for asynchronous processing.

Question 24

How can fault tolerance be added to Twitter?

Answer 24

Implementing data replication, failover mechanisms, and monitoring systems.

Question 25

How is monitoring and debugging handled in Twitter?

Answer 25

Using centralized logging, metrics collection, alerting systems, and real-time monitoring dashboards.

Question 26

What is a real-world tradeoff in Twitter's design?

Answer 26

Balancing real-time data delivery with system scalability and consistency.

Question 27

What is a common interview question on Twitter's design?

Answer 27

Design a system to handle user timelines and tweet distribution at scale.

Question 28

What is a potential gotcha in Twitter's design?

Answer 28

Ensuring the consistency and ordering of tweets in user timelines across distributed systems.

Question 29

What is the primary function of WhatsApp?

Answer 29

WhatsApp is an instant messaging application that allows users to send text messages, voice messages, images, and make voice and video calls.

Question 30

What are the advantages of WhatsApp's design?

Answer 30

End-to-end encryption, real-time communication, and a user-friendly interface.

Question 31

What are the disadvantages of WhatsApp's design?

Answer 31

Challenges with message synchronization across devices and handling offline message delivery.

Question 32

What are best practices in designing WhatsApp?

Answer 32

Implementing efficient message queues, ensuring data encryption, and providing reliable message delivery mechanisms.

Question 33

What are common use cases for WhatsApp?

Answer 33

Personal and group messaging, voice and video calls, and media sharing.

Question 34

How does WhatsApp's design impact system architecture?

Answer 34

Requires real-time message delivery, secure communication protocols, and scalable infrastructure.

Question 35

Give an example of a system similar to WhatsApp.

Answer 35

Telegram, which also offers instant messaging with additional features like channels and bots.

Question 36

What are the architectural components of WhatsApp?

Answer 36

Client applications, messaging servers, encryption modules, and databases for storing user data and message metadata.

Question 37

How can performance be ensured in WhatsApp?

Answer 37

Using efficient protocols like WebSockets, optimizing message routing, and employing load balancing.

Question 38

How can fault tolerance be added to WhatsApp?

Answer 38

Implementing message retries, data replication, and monitoring systems to detect and recover from failures.

Question 39

How is monitoring and debugging handled in WhatsApp?

Answer 39

Utilizing logging, metrics collection, alerting systems, and real-time monitoring dashboards.

Question 40

What is a real-world tradeoff in WhatsApp's design?

Answer 40

Balancing message delivery speed with end-to-end encryption and user privacy.

Question 41

What is a common interview question on WhatsApp's design?

Answer 41

Design a real-time chat system with support for message synchronization and offline delivery.

Question 42

What is a potential gotcha in WhatsApp's design?

Answer 42

Handling message delivery in scenarios with intermittent network connectivity and ensuring data consistency.

Question 43

What is the primary function of YouTube?

Answer 43

YouTube is a video-sharing platform that allows users to upload, view, share, and comment on videos.

Question 44

What are the advantages of YouTube's design?

Answer 44

Scalable video streaming, user-generated content, and monetization opportunities for creators.

Question 45

What are the disadvantages of YouTube's design?

Answer 45

High storage and bandwidth requirements, content moderation challenges, and latency in video processing.

Question 46

What are best practices in designing YouTube?

Answer 46

Implementing efficient video encoding, using CDNs for content delivery, and providing robust search and recommendation systems.

Question 47

What are common use cases for YouTube?

Answer 47

Video blogging, educational content, entertainment, live streaming, and advertising.

Question 48

How does YouTube's design impact system architecture?

Answer 48

Requires scalable storage solutions, efficient video processing pipelines, and robust content delivery networks.

Question 49

Give an example of a system similar to YouTube.

Answer 49

Vimeo, which also offers video hosting and sharing services with a focus on high-quality content.

Question 50

What are the architectural components of YouTube?

Answer 50

Video upload and processing services, content delivery networks, recommendation engines, and databases for metadata storage.

Question 51

How can performance be ensured in YouTube?

Answer 51

Using adaptive bitrate streaming, caching popular content, and optimizing video encoding and delivery pipelines.

Question 52

How can fault tolerance be added to YouTube?

Answer 52

Implementing data replication, failover strategies, and monitoring systems to detect and recover from failures.

Question 53

How is monitoring and debugging handled in YouTube?

Answer 53

Utilizing logging, metrics collection, alerting systems, and real-time monitoring dashboards.

Question 54

What is a real-world tradeoff in YouTube's design?

Answer 54

Balancing video quality with streaming performance and bandwidth consumption.

Question 55

What is a common interview question on YouTube's design?

Answer 55

Design a scalable video streaming platform with support for user uploads and content recommendations.

Question 56

What is a potential gotcha in YouTube's design?

Answer 56

Handling the vast amount of user-generated content and ensuring compliance with copyright regulations.