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Problem Description
Design a logical data model (schema) for an advertising platform.
The data model must incorporate the following core entities:
- Business/Account: Represents the advertiser.
- Campaign: Defines the advertising objective and budget.
- Budget: Associated with campaigns, controlling spend.
- Ad Group / Line Item: A grouping of ads within a campaign, often with specific targeting or bidding strategies.
- Creative and Assets: The actual ad content (e.g., images, videos, text) and associated metadata.
- Targeting: Criteria used to determine which users see an ad (e.g., audiences, geographical location, device type).
- User: Represents the end-user, including considerations for user identifiers and privacy constraints.
- Delivery Logs: Records of ad interactions, such as impressions, clicks, and conversions.
Your design should explain:
- The key relationships between these entities (e.g., one-to-many, many-to-many) and how they are represented in the schema.
- How the proposed schema effectively supports the platform's major operational flows:
- Intake/Creation Flow: The process where advertisers set up and manage their campaigns and creatives.
- Serving Flow: The real-time ad selection and delivery process at the moment of a user request.
- Tracking Flow: The logging and attribution of user interactions like impressions, clicks, and conversions.
- Any indexing and partitioning strategies you would implement to ensure scalability, performance, and efficient reporting.
AI interview prep
Core dilemma
Balancing the extremely high write throughput and low-latency requirements for ad serving and tracking with the complex, analytical query needs for reporting, all while maintaining a flexible, evolving schema for ad configuration and adhering to strict privacy regulations.
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.
Problem Description
Design a logical data model (schema) for an advertising platform.
The data model must incorporate the following core entities:
- Business/Account: Represents the advertiser.
- Campaign: Defines the advertising objective and budget.
- Budget: Associated with campaigns, controlling spend.
- Ad Group / Line Item: A grouping of ads within a campaign, often with specific targeting or bidding strategies.
- Creative and Assets: The actual ad content (e.g., images, videos, text) and associated metadata.
- Targeting: Criteria used to determine which users see an ad (e.g., audiences, geographical location, device type).
- User: Represents the end-user, including considerations for user identifiers and privacy constraints.
- Delivery Logs: Records of ad interactions, such as impressions, clicks, and conversions.
Your design should explain:
- The key relationships between these entities (e.g., one-to-many, many-to-many) and how they are represented in the schema.
- How the proposed schema effectively supports the platform's major operational flows:
- Intake/Creation Flow: The process where advertisers set up and manage their campaigns and creatives.
- Serving Flow: The real-time ad selection and delivery process at the moment of a user request.
- Tracking Flow: The logging and attribution of user interactions like impressions, clicks, and conversions.
- Any indexing and partitioning strategies you would implement to ensure scalability, performance, and efficient reporting.