System Design Interview Presentation Guide

Key reminders and timing structure for delivering an effective system design interview presentation. Covers how to approach functional and non-functional requirements, APIs, high-level design, communication tips, and wrap-up steps.

What should you start with when giving the presentation?

Begin with the functional requirements.

How many clarifying questions should you ask at the start?

Ask 2–3 clarifying questions.

How long should you spend on the functional requirements?

Three Minutes

How long should you spend on the non-functional requirements and what questions to ask?

Three Minutes

CAP

Scale

Peak Scale

How long should you spend discussing the API?

Four minutes, but don’t go into too much detail since the API is not the highlight. No need to explain cursor position or blob storage.

What should your high-level system design include?

Include all workflows and clearly state it’s a suboptimal solution, inviting the interviewer to correct or guide you if they’d like more detail.

How should you handle the order of discussion of deep dive topics during the interview?

Ask the interviewer if they’d prefer a different order for deeper focus, since some interviewers have their own preferred sequence.

What should you focus on during the interview — breadth or depth?

Focus on breadth over depth to show you understand the full system picture.

What’s an example of something to avoid during your explanation?

Don’t repeat the same concept twice, such as explaining the consistency model again.

What should you include after finishing the main design section?

Mention updates, monitoring, provisioning, and constraint jobs like throughput optimized.

How should you handle production-level tools in your explanation?

Say something like, “In a production system, I’d use a main database, but for now I’m simplifying and combining everything here.”

What mindset should you maintain during a system design interview presentation?

Keep your answers high-level and structured, invite feedback as you go, and avoid over-explaining technical details that aren’t relevant to a short demo.

What should you do after finishing each subsection of your design explanation?

Pause briefly to confirm understanding — ask the interviewer if it makes sense or if they’d like you to go deeper.

Before drawing high level deisgn list out all ….

Workflows

After finishing all the higb level design mention deep dives and then go back to

Non functional requirements