Step 4 - Wrap up

In this final step, the interviewer might ask you a few follow-up questions or give you the freedom to discuss other additional points. Here are a few directions to follow:

• The interviewer might want you to identify the system bottlenecks and discuss potential improvements. Never say your design is perfect and nothing can be improved. There is always something to improve upon. This is a great opportunity to show your critical thinking and leave a good final impression.

• It could be useful to give the interviewer a recap of your design. This is particularly important if you suggested a few solutions. Refreshing your interviewer’s memory can be helpful after a long session.

• Error cases (server failure, network loss, etc.) are interesting to talk about.

• Operation issues are worth mentioning. How do you monitor metrics and error logs? How to roll out the system?

• How to handle the next scale curve is also an interesting topic. For example, if your current design supports 1 million users, what changes do you need to make to support 10 million users?

• Propose other refinements you need if you had more time.