

Ask HN: How to study for open-ended design interview questions? - nemesest

Questions that involve designing a database schema for a certain situation, or how to test a distributed network of web servers for google.com, or how to design a mobile gmail app which already have back end REST APIs implemented etc.<p>What are companies looking for in these kinds of questions, and how can people study for them? How do software architects go about designing software systems? Thanks
======
wattson12
Its an interview question, so no-one is expecting you to solve the problem or
think of everything in what should be a fairly short time.

What they want to see is how you work: do you ask questions if you don't know
something? do you sketch everything out? do you start from model up, or from
UI/UX? can you draw from previous experience to improve the design?

After you've done something there would most likely be a discussion about the
design, which again is like how you work: how do you handle criticism, how you
debate approaches, can you see areas which could be improved on etc

