Systems Design Interview @ Meta (Facebook): The Complete Guide

Preparing for a systems design interview at Meta (Facebook) or another Big Tech company?

This comprehensive guide collects all the necessary resources to tackle system design interview questions and ace your next technical interview.

Learn to analyze and design large-scale distributed systems like a seasoned engineering leader. Review common system design interview questions, best practices for structuring your system design, helpful diagrams to visualize your architecture, sample system design interview questions with detailed solutions, resources for practising system design skills, and tips for communicating your design clearly.

With this complete set of system design interview preparation resources, you’ll have the frameworks, knowledge, and tools to demonstrate your system design abilities and land your dream tech role.

Why Should I Learn System Design?

Unlocking the Power of Problem-Solving

System design may seem intimidating for seasoned engineers and aspiring managers, but it’s a skill worth mastering. At its core, system design empowers you to tackle complex problems with elegance and efficiency. It’s your passport to crafting solutions that can handle millions of users, process data quickly, and deliver top-notch performance. Imagine architecting a system capable of supporting the next big tech innovation or optimizing an existing one to scale seamlessly. By delving into system design, you’re not just enhancing your technical prowess but unlocking the power of problem-solving at a whole new level.

Elevating Your Career Trajectory

System design is not just about creating robust, high-performance systems; it’s also a strategic move for advancing your career. As an engineer, it positions you as a sought-after talent, ready to tackle the most intricate challenges. For aspiring engineering managers, understanding system design is paramount. It equips you with the knowledge to lead teams in architecting solutions that align with business goals and deliver exceptional user experiences. The ability to communicate and guide your team through the intricacies of system design is a skill highly valued in leadership roles, setting you on a trajectory for career growth and impactful leadership.

Join the League of Tech Visionaries

Learning system design opens the door to a world of innovation and creativity. It’s your ticket to joining the league of tech visionaries who conceptualize and build the systems that shape our digital landscape. Whether you dream of launching a startup, contributing to open-source projects, or rising through the ranks at a top tech company, system design is your secret weapon. It’s not just a skill; it’s a mindset that empowers you to turn abstract ideas into tangible solutions. So, why should you learn system design? Because it’s your gateway to solving big problems, advancing your career, and joining the ranks of tech trailblazers who change the world, one system at a time.

Systems Design Resources

This is The Complete Set of Resources for Systems Design interviews.

Things you must know in Systems Design

👉 System design basics
👉 Horizontal and vertical scaling
👉 Load balancing and Message queues
👉 High-level design and low-level design, Consistent Hashing, Monolithic and Microservices architecture
👉 Caching, Indexing, Proxies
👉 Networking, How Browsers work, Content Network Delivery (CDN)
👉 Database Sharding, CAP Theorem, Database schema Design
👉 Concurrency, API, Components + OOP + Abstraction
👉 Estimation and Planning, Performance
👉 Map Reduce, Patterns, and Microservices
👉 SQL vs NoSQL and Cloud
👉 Most Popular System Design Questions

System Design Case Studies

👉 Design Netflix
👉 Design Reddit
👉 Design Messenger App
👉 Design Instagram
👉 Design Dropbox
👉 Design YouTube
👉 Design Tinder
👉 Design Yelp
👉 Design WhatsApp
👉 Design URL shortener
👉 Design Amazon Prime Video
👉 Design Twitter
👉 Design Uber
👉 Design TikTok
👉 Design FB Newsfeed
👉 Design Web Crawler
👉 Design API Rate Limiter

All solved case studies

👉 Solved System Design Cases Studies
👉 System Design Important terms
👉 Most Popular System Design Questions
👉 Complete System Design Basics Series

Mock Systems Design Interview

Hozefa Jodiawalla (Engineering Manager, ex-Meta), answers a mock system design interview question on how to design a vending machine. This non-technical system design exercise is great for thinking outside the box in your upcoming PM, SWE, or EM system design prep. Hozefa goes step by step and lays out all of the requirements of the question. The structure that the interviewee presents could be helpful when you are planning your interview structure. This is really important, considering that such interviews have no predefined flow, and it’s up to the interviewee to drive the conversation and keep time while working on the open-ended question.

Conclusion

If you plan to apply for a job in an Engineering role, you must pass a Systems Design Interview. Each interview covers High-level and Low-level production architecture. Follow and study the articles above, which will help you crack these technical interviews.