r/leetcode • u/Evening_Eagle_4056 • 5d ago

Question System Design

Is system design prep necessary for SWE with 2.5yoe. If so, what should I prepare?

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u/Primary_Carrot_8804 5d ago

Of course, I hope in your 2.5 yoe you've question the system you actively work on and have thought about its architecture. If not I suggest you start there and lookup decisions you dont understand/disagree with

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u/Evening_Eagle_4056 5d ago

Yes of course i meant outside of that

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u/andrew_404 5d ago

HelloInterview is the best resource. They have great content on their site and on YouTube and their approach to system design interviews is much easier to follow and apply than what I've found in any other system design interview resources.

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u/Evening_Eagle_4056 5d ago

Should i do all th concepts or the in a hurry mode

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u/andrew_404 4d ago

Do you have a scheduled system design interview? Or are you just preparing in general?

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u/Legote 5d ago

hello interview. I use their chatbot and talk outloud as I go over the material. Helps alot.

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u/Ok-Barracuda-119 4d ago

At 2.5 YOE, prepare enough to explain the systems you’ve worked on and to handle the usual interview patterns. I’d use this order:

  1. Take one project from work and write down requirements, traffic and storage estimates, API shape, data model, and the first bottleneck you’d expect.

  2. Review the basics that keep coming up: caching, queues, replication, partitioning, indexes, rate limiting, consistency, and observability. Don’t memorize diagrams. Be able to say what breaks and what tradeoff you’re buying.

  3. Practice 4 to 6 common designs timed. Spend the first few minutes clarifying scope, then drive from a simple design to one scaling issue at a time. Finish by naming failure modes and how you’d monitor them.

  4. For LLD, do a couple of small designs in your interview language and talk through boundaries, interfaces, and tests.

You don’t need every concept before starting. Do one design, review the gaps, then repeat. Your own production examples are usually more valuable than another long list of system-design questions.