Never jump straight into drawing boxes. Spend the first 5 to 10 minutes asking clarifying questions to establish constraints.
This is where you showcase your seniority. Dive into the bottlenecks identified by your interviewer.
Database deep dive. The PDF contains a matrix of SQL vs. NoSQL. Annotate it. Write down exactly when to use Cassandra (Write-heavy) vs. DynamoDB (Key-value).
The interviewer will pick a component. "What happens if the database goes down?" or "How do we handle high write spikes?" This is where you apply the (see Part 2).
Get buy-in on the general architecture (APIs, database schemas). Design Deep Dive:
Do not just hoard the PDF. Print it. Highlight the "Common mistakes" section at the end of each chapter. Today, take the problem and try to build it using only the PDF closed—then open it to check your blind spots.
Define the primary endpoints, parameters, and expected response payloads.
Microservices split by business logic (e.g., User Service, Notification Service).
