Problem Description
Design a system capable of reporting the total number of website visits within the most recent 1-minute sliding window. The system must accommodate high website traffic, and the visit count should be queryable in near real-time.
Discussion Points
Candidates should be prepared to discuss the following aspects of their design:
- A precise definition of what constitutes a "visit."
- The architecture of the event ingestion and processing pipeline.
- Strategies for maintaining accurate rolling 60-second visit counts.
- Appropriate storage choices for both raw events and aggregated data.
- Approaches to scaling the system to handle high load.
- Measures for ensuring fault tolerance and high availability.
- Mechanisms for deduplicating events.
- Strategies for handling late or out-of-order events.
- Methods for monitoring the system's health and performance.
AI interview prep
Core dilemma
Balancing the need for near real-time, accurate, and consistent aggregations over a high-throughput sliding window against the complexities of distributed processing, fault tolerance, and resource efficiency.
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 system capable of reporting the total number of website visits within the most recent 1-minute sliding window. The system must accommodate high website traffic, and the visit count should be queryable in near real-time.
Discussion Points
Candidates should be prepared to discuss the following aspects of their design:
- A precise definition of what constitutes a "visit."
- The architecture of the event ingestion and processing pipeline.
- Strategies for maintaining accurate rolling 60-second visit counts.
- Appropriate storage choices for both raw events and aggregated data.
- Approaches to scaling the system to handle high load.
- Measures for ensuring fault tolerance and high availability.
- Mechanisms for deduplicating events.
- Strategies for handling late or out-of-order events.
- Methods for monitoring the system's health and performance.