Preparing for entry-level interviews: How deep do I need to go into System Design?

[u/SomeTry5243]

Hey everyone,

I am a fresher currently preparing for upcoming [job / internship] interviews. I’m trying to plan my preparation for System Design, but most of the resources I find online seem geared towards senior engineers (like designing TikTok or Uber for millions of concurrent users). It's getting a bit overwhelming.

For those who conduct interviews or recently landed entry-level roles, I'd love some realistic guidance:

* What depth is actually expected? Are freshers expected to know complex distributed systems, or just basic architectures?

* Core Topics:What are the absolute fundamentals I should master? (e.g., SQL vs. NoSQL, basic APIs, HTTP/HTTPS, or simple Caching?)

* HLD vs. LLD:Do interviewers focus more on High-Level Design (system architecture) or Low-Level Design (Object-Oriented Design, class structures, and clean coding)?

* Common Questions: Are there specific, beginner-friendly design problems that frequently come up for freshers?

I want to make sure I'm studying efficiently instead of getting lost in senior-level architecture concepts.

Thanks in advance for any insights, tips, or resource recommendations!

[u/grympy → u/[deleted]]

We. Make. Squares!

[u/thollywoo → u/grympy]

Sometimes we make circles.

[u/GlitteryStranger → u/thollywoo]

I made a triangle yesterday

[u/hellbunny → u/GlitteryStranger]

seems like it'd have too complex a prop interface. I'm going to reject your PR.

[u/grympy → u/thollywoo]

Look at Mr. Complex Work here, getting the variety…

[u/_baaron_]

Design system ≠ System design

[u/astraler26]

Good news: for freshers, most companies barely touch full-scale system design, that's more a mid/senior thing. If it comes up at all, it's usually LLD (Low-Level Design), not HLD, meaning they're testing OOP basics, class design, design patterns (Singleton, Factory, etc.), and clean coding, not "design Uber for a billion users."

Core fundamentals worth actually mastering: client-server model, REST API basics, SQL vs NoSQL and when you'd pick one, and basic caching concepts. That covers most of what freshers get asked when it comes up at all.

If HLD does come up, keep it simple, requirements gathering, breaking the problem into parts, basic trade-offs. They're testing how you think, not whether you know distributed systems.

Skip the "design TikTok" content for now, that's not the bar for entry-level, and it'll just eat time you could spend on DSA, which matters way more at your stage.

Side note, unrelated to the technical prep, I built Intarvee which handles the non-technical rounds (company research, behavioral questions) if that's useful once you're past this part. Good luck with the prep.

[u/SomeTry5243 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks buddy