System Design: Multi-Level Parking System
Context
Design the backend for a multi-level parking facility. The system must track floors, rows, parking spots, and vehicle types. It needs to allocate and release spots upon vehicle entry and exit, and support queries for availability by vehicle/spot type and by floor.
Assumptions
- Vehicles: motorcycle, car, van/SUV, bus/truck. Some vehicle types (e.g., bus/truck) may require
kadjacent standard spots. - Spots: motorcycle, compact, regular, large, EV (with a flag for charging capability). Each spot is located on a specific floor and row, and has a sequential index within its row to determine adjacency.
- Adjacency: Defined as contiguous indexes within the same row.
Requirements
- Data Models: Define the core data models, including entities, their relationships, and key fields.
- APIs: Define APIs for the following operations:
- Vehicle Entry: Allocate one or more suitable parking spots and issue a ticket or allocation record.
- Vehicle Exit: Release the previously allocated spot(s).
- Queries:
- Retrieve available spots by specific spot type and by floor.
- Check availability for a given vehicle type.
- Multi-Spot Allocation: Address the specific logic for allocating spots to vehicles that require multiple adjacent spots.
- Considerations: Discuss key constraints, strategies for handling concurrency, and performance considerations.
AI interview prep
Core dilemma
Efficiently finding and allocating contiguous blocks of specific spot types while maintaining real-time availability and handling concurrent requests, optimizing search for adjacency and managing state under contention.
3 tradeoffs and 2 stress tests locked
Interview prep
Unlock the interviewer X-Ray rubric, tradeoff matrix, stress tests, clarifying questions, and key concepts.
System Design: Multi-Level Parking System
Context
Design the backend for a multi-level parking facility. The system must track floors, rows, parking spots, and vehicle types. It needs to allocate and release spots upon vehicle entry and exit, and support queries for availability by vehicle/spot type and by floor.
Assumptions
- Vehicles: motorcycle, car, van/SUV, bus/truck. Some vehicle types (e.g., bus/truck) may require
kadjacent standard spots. - Spots: motorcycle, compact, regular, large, EV (with a flag for charging capability). Each spot is located on a specific floor and row, and has a sequential index within its row to determine adjacency.
- Adjacency: Defined as contiguous indexes within the same row.
Requirements
- Data Models: Define the core data models, including entities, their relationships, and key fields.
- APIs: Define APIs for the following operations:
- Vehicle Entry: Allocate one or more suitable parking spots and issue a ticket or allocation record.
- Vehicle Exit: Release the previously allocated spot(s).
- Queries:
- Retrieve available spots by specific spot type and by floor.
- Check availability for a given vehicle type.
- Multi-Spot Allocation: Address the specific logic for allocating spots to vehicles that require multiple adjacent spots.
- Considerations: Discuss key constraints, strategies for handling concurrency, and performance considerations.