Created basic System Design Round UI in mock interview
Category: system_design
Date: 2026-03-08
System Design Round UI Mock Interview Solution
Problem Statement: Design a UI for a mock interview system that allows users to create and manage interview questions, schedule interviews, and view interview results.
First Principle of System Design:
The first principle of system design emphasizes the importance of Separation of Concerns (SoC). It suggests that a system should be divided into distinct components, each with its own responsibility, to promote modularity, maintainability, and scalability.
Requirements (Functional + Non-functional)
- Functional Requirements:
- Create and manage interview questions
- Schedule interviews
- View interview results
- User authentication and authorization
- Search and filtering of interview questions
- Non-functional Requirements:
- High availability (99.99% uptime)
- Scalability ( handle 1000+ concurrent users)
- Performance (response time < 500ms)
- Data security and integrity
High-Level Architecture
- Frontend:
- Client-side: React.js or Angular.js for building the UI
- Server-side: Node.js with Express.js for handling API requests
- Backend:
- Database: MongoDB or PostgreSQL for storing interview questions, user data, and interview results
- API Gateway: NGINX or Amazon API Gateway for routing API requests
- Infrastructure:
- Cloud provider: AWS or Google Cloud for scalability and high availability
- Load balancer: HAProxy or Amazon Elastic Load Balancer for distributing traffic
Database Design
- User Collection:
- _id (primary key)
- username
- password (hashed)
- email
- Interview Question Collection:
- _id (primary key)
- question_text
- category
- difficulty_level
- Interview Result Collection:
- _id (primary key)
- user_id (foreign key referencing User Collection)
- interview_question_id (foreign key referencing Interview Question Collection)
- result (pass/fail)
Scaling Strategy
- Horizontal Scaling:
- Add more instances of the application server, load balancer, and database to handle increased traffic
- Use a auto-scaling service (e.g., AWS Auto Scaling) to dynamically adjust instance count based on demand
- Vertical Scaling:
- Upgrade instance types (e.g., from t2.micro to c4.xlarge) to increase CPU and memory resources
- Use a load balancer to distribute traffic across multiple instances
Bottlenecks
- Database Performance:
- Use an optimized database index on the interview question collection
- Implement caching (e.g., Redis) to store frequently accessed data
- API Gateway Performance:
- Use a content delivery network (CDN) to cache static assets
- Implement rate limiting and IP blocking to prevent abuse
Trade-offs
- Database Choice:
- MongoDB provides a flexible schema, but may impact performance and data consistency
- PostgreSQL provides strong consistency, but may require more configuration and maintenance
- Frontend Framework:
- React.js provides a fast and efficient development experience, but may require more configuration and optimization
- Angular.js provides a robust and feature-rich framework, but may be overkill for a simple UI
Learning Links:
- Separation of Concerns (SoC): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_concerns
- Microservices Architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microservices
- Database Indexing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_(database)
- Caching: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_(computing)
- Load Balancing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_balancing_(computing)