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Design an IAM system for services and users
Authentication vs. AuthorizationRole-Based Access Control , Attribute-BaseJSON Web Tokens and Opaque TokensDistributed Systems Design & Consistency MCryptography Fundamentals
System Design: Identity and Access Management (IAM) System
Design an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system for an organization or platform.
The system must provide comprehensive support for:
- Principals: Both human users and service identities (workloads).
- Core Functions: Authentication (verifying who a principal is) and Authorization (determining what a principal can do).
- Permission Management: Defining and managing permissions through roles and policies.
- Compliance: Auditing and generating compliance reports.
Requirements
- Multi-tenancy: The system must support multiple distinct organizations, projects, or accounts.
- Fine-grained Permissions: Permissions should be granular, allowing control over specific resources and actions (e.g.,
s3:GetObjectonbucket-name/path/to/object). - Temporary Credentials: Services should primarily use temporary credentials, minimizing the use of long-lived secrets.
- API Access Control: Implement robust access control for internal microservices.
- Administrative Interface: Provide an administrative UI and CLI for managing users, roles, and policies.
Deliverables
Candidates should present a design covering:
- Core Data Model: Define the schema for principals, resources, roles, and policies.
- Authentication & Authorization Flows: Detail the end-to-end processes for authentication and authorization, including token formats.
- Policy Evaluation: Describe the approach for evaluating policies to grant or deny access.
- Operational Aspects: Address auditing mechanisms, credential revocation, and key rotation strategies.
- Architectural Considerations: Discuss key trade-offs and scaling considerations for the proposed design.
AI interview prep
Core dilemma
Balancing extreme security requirements (fine-grained, real-time authorization, comprehensive auditing, multi-tenancy isolation) with high performance, low latency, and massive scalability across a distributed microservice architecture.
Mid-level signals3
Senior signals3
Red flags3
3 tradeoffs and 3 stress tests locked
Interview prep
Unlock the interviewer X-Ray rubric, tradeoff matrix, stress tests, clarifying questions, and key concepts.
Design an IAM system for services and users
Authentication vs. AuthorizationRole-Based Access Control , Attribute-BaseJSON Web Tokens and Opaque TokensDistributed Systems Design & Consistency MCryptography Fundamentals
System Design: Identity and Access Management (IAM) System
Design an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system for an organization or platform.
The system must provide comprehensive support for:
- Principals: Both human users and service identities (workloads).
- Core Functions: Authentication (verifying who a principal is) and Authorization (determining what a principal can do).
- Permission Management: Defining and managing permissions through roles and policies.
- Compliance: Auditing and generating compliance reports.
Requirements
- Multi-tenancy: The system must support multiple distinct organizations, projects, or accounts.
- Fine-grained Permissions: Permissions should be granular, allowing control over specific resources and actions (e.g.,
s3:GetObjectonbucket-name/path/to/object). - Temporary Credentials: Services should primarily use temporary credentials, minimizing the use of long-lived secrets.
- API Access Control: Implement robust access control for internal microservices.
- Administrative Interface: Provide an administrative UI and CLI for managing users, roles, and policies.
Deliverables
Candidates should present a design covering:
- Core Data Model: Define the schema for principals, resources, roles, and policies.
- Authentication & Authorization Flows: Detail the end-to-end processes for authentication and authorization, including token formats.
- Policy Evaluation: Describe the approach for evaluating policies to grant or deny access.
- Operational Aspects: Address auditing mechanisms, credential revocation, and key rotation strategies.
- Architectural Considerations: Discuss key trade-offs and scaling considerations for the proposed design.