System Design Basics

Question 1

What is the approach for Architecture Design questions?

Answer 1

1. Requirements
2. API/System Interface
3. Data Flow
4. High Level Design
5. Deep Dives

Question 1

What is approach for Product Design questions?

Answer 1

1. Requirements
2. Core Entities (nouns, possibly DB tables)
3. API (e.g POST /users { key: payload )
4. High Level Design
5. Deep Dives

Question 2

What are the two types of requirements?

Answer 2

1. Functional requirements
2. Non-functional

For non-functional, usually think of CAP theorem and speed/latency.
For example:
1. System is highly available
2. page loads in less than 500 ms
3. Number of users supported (billions)
4. Eventual or Strong consistency