INTERVIEW ROUNDS

The system design round (HLD)

A 45 to 60 minute discussion where you design a large system such as a news feed or a payment service. It usually starts at SDE 2 or SDE 3 and decides the level for senior candidates.

What happens

You clarify requirements, estimate scale, define the API and data model, draw the high-level design, then go deep on the hardest parts (consistency, hot spots, failures) and discuss trade-offs. There is no single right answer: interviewers score how you drive the discussion and defend choices. AlgoRung teaches it with the LADDER method.

What is expected at each level

SDE 1 · New grad to about 2 years

Usually absent, or light design questions inside a coding round.

SDE 2 · About 2 to 5 years

Present at most companies. A sound end-to-end design with sensible components and basic scaling is enough.

SDE 3 · Senior, about 5 to 10 years

One or two rounds that set your level. Expected to lead, size the system and go deep on two or three hard parts.

SDE 4 · Staff, principal and above

Two rounds at many companies. Expected to handle ambiguity, cost, operations and cross-team trade-offs, and to change the design when the interviewer pushes.

How to prepare

• Learn the LADDER method: Listen, Ask, Define, Draw, Expand, Review.
• Watch the AlgoRung System Design concepts and building blocks before the design problems.
• Practise on the AlgoRung design board: draw it, then check it against the reference.
• Do back-of-the-envelope maths out loud: users, requests per second, storage.

Common mistakes

• Drawing boxes before agreeing on requirements
• Naming technologies without saying why
• Never going deep on anything
• Ignoring failure: what happens when this component dies?

Companies that use it

• Google · SDE 3, SDE 4
  An open-ended design round is standard from L5; staff candidates may get two and are expected to drive the discussion.
• Amazon · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  System design is standard from SDE II and increasingly shows up in SDE I loops; SDE III and above often get two design rounds.
• Microsoft · SDE 3, SDE 4
  Design sets your level for senior and above; mid-level loops may skip it or keep it light, and infrastructure roles can have more than one.
• Meta · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  System design or product design (product architecture), chosen to fit your background; E5+ usually get two design rounds and staff candidates must pass both.
• Apple · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  System design for mid and senior roles, often from a product angle (photo sync, push notifications); some teams now add an AI system design round.
• Netflix · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  An open system design discussion, often framed around the team's own area such as ads, streaming or recommendations.
• Uber · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  System design focused on scale, async processing and failure handling, sometimes starting from your own past work.
• LinkedIn · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  System design, often product or backend style, such as typeahead.
• Airbnb · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  System design with a vague, product-aware prompt that rewards clarifying scope and caring about the user experience.
• Stripe · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  System design that leans on clean API and data-model design, reliability and idempotency; new-grad loops may skip it.
• Atlassian · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  A systems design discussion with no coding, where the interviewer adjusts the follow-ups to see how you adapt to new trade-offs.
• Goldman Sachs · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  For experienced hires, a design round with a resume deep dive and a scalable-system prompt.
• Salesforce · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  A deep-dive design round on failure handling, distributed transactions and rollout strategy.
• Oracle · SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
  From IC3 up, an architecture round on your current system plus a standard design prompt.
• Adobe · SDE 3, SDE 4
  Senior loops alternate DSA and design rounds, e.g. a serverless media-processing service.
• Flipkart · SDE 2, SDE 3
  A design round mixing LLD with some HLD for SDE-2; SDE-3 goes deep on both.
• Walmart Global Tech · SDE 2, SDE 3
  System design for SE III and above, e.g. inventory management or a read-heavy multi-region feed.
• PhonePe · SDE 2, SDE 3
  Database choice, auth at the gateway, token propagation between services, and scaling.
• Swiggy · SDE 2, SDE 3
  High-level design, often on delivery and booking problems.
• Razorpay · SDE 2, SDE 3
  Starts from requirements, then goes deep on scalability, availability and consistency per component.

Other rounds

The online assessment (OA) · The phone screen · The coding round (DSA) · The AI-assisted coding round · Low-level design and machine coding · Team-specific rounds · The behavioral round · The hiring manager round · The bar raiser round · Team match and hiring committee