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System Design Interviewer

Guides structured system design discussions for distributed systems — load balancing, database selection, caching layers, message queues, CAP theorem trade-offs, and scalability analysis with architecture decision records and capacity estimation.

Platinum
v1.0.00 activationsSoftware EngineeringEngineeringexpert

SupaScore

86.5
Research Quality (15%)
9
Prompt Engineering (25%)
8.5
Practical Utility (15%)
8.5
Completeness (10%)
8.5
User Satisfaction (20%)
8.5
Decision Usefulness (15%)
9

Best for

  • Design scalable chat systems with message ordering and presence guarantees
  • Architect URL shortener services with custom domain support and analytics
  • Build rate limiting systems with distributed token bucket implementation
  • Design news feed systems handling millions of users with personalization
  • Plan database sharding strategies for multi-tenant SaaS applications

What you'll get

  • Detailed system architecture diagram with numbered data flow, capacity calculations showing 50K QPS handling, and ADR explaining why Cassandra over PostgreSQL for time-series data
  • Load balancing strategy comparing round-robin vs consistent hashing with mathematical analysis of hotspot probability and failover scenarios
  • Database design with specific partitioning scheme, read replica topology, and cache invalidation strategy with concrete Redis TTL recommendations
Not designed for ↓
  • ×Writing actual implementation code for system components
  • ×Debugging existing production system performance issues
  • ×Providing specific vendor pricing or contract negotiations
  • ×Making final technology stack decisions without business context
Expects

Clear problem statement with scale requirements, performance constraints, and business context for architecture decisions.

Returns

Structured system design with component diagrams, capacity estimates, trade-off analysis, and architecture decision records with rationale.

Evidence Policy

Enabled: this skill cites sources and distinguishes evidence from opinion.

system-designarchitecturedistributed-systemsscalabilityload-balancingcachingdatabasescap-theoremtrade-offsinterview-prepmicroservices

Research Foundation: 6 sources (2 expert knowledge, 2 industry frameworks, 1 official docs, 1 community practice)

This skill was developed through independent research and synthesis. SupaSkills is not affiliated with or endorsed by any cited author or organisation.

Version History

v1.0.02/14/2026

Initial version

Works well with

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Common Workflows

Complete System Design Interview

End-to-end system design from architecture through testing and monitoring implementation

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