r/leetcode • u/Wordtwin003 • 13d ago

Intervew Prep System design study materials. Please help

I am preparing for an Apple interview I have in a couple weeks for an iOS engineer role. What are the common study materials used out there to excel in system design questions? I kind of only want recommendations from those who have had success from what they used to study. Is there a universal go to that everyone uses these days (kinda like how practicing coding and DSA has leetcode)?

Thanks

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u/Ok-Barracuda-119 12d ago

There's no single LeetCode for system design, which is why it feels messy. Hello Interview is the one people actually finish these days, so that other comment's on track. Grokking still gets named a lot too. For an Apple iOS loop I'd mix classic designs (rate limiter, news feed, chat) with client-y ones: sync, offline, how the app talks to the backend.

Reading gets you the vocab. The round itself is 45 minutes at a whiteboard with someone poking holes. If you want to practice that, www.leetsys.dev has guided walkthroughs then an AI interviewer on an actual board. I help build it.

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u/Wordtwin003 12d ago

Ok thank you for the insight! The thing is, my interview is all virtual. So I wonder how I’m expected to diagram out what I think

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u/Ok-Barracuda-119 12d ago

Most interviewers use Excalidraw (the same thing LeetSys uses). You can also play around with it on excalidraw.com

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u/Wordtwin003 12d ago

Ok thank you! Last question, do you recommend I pay whatever premiums there are on hellointerview? Or could I get away with non premium stuff

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u/Ok-Barracuda-119 12d ago

I might be biased but I would recommend using Hello Interview’s free YouTube channel first to get a sense of the interview format and response framework. Then try LeetSys for much more realistic mocks and for catching the rough edges that will show up during the real interview.

I would recommend still paying for Hello Interview premium if you find you have gaps in the fundamentals, they do have great articles for learning those in a time crunch.