How a Few Mock Interviews Turned Into a System Design Cheat Sheet
My systems design interview rubric
A few weeks ago, after seeing the Amazon layoffs, I felt a mix of sadness and helplessness. I wanted to do something tangible to help people navigating interviews in uncertain times. So I offered up to 10 mock system design interviews to anyone preparing for their next role LinkedIn post
The first session started normally enough. The candidate walked me through a design problem, and I listened, asked questions, and watched how they structured their thoughts. When we reached the feedback portion, I found myself saying things I’d said many times before: “Make sure to write down the requirements,” “Call out your database keys,” “Think about tradeoffs and scaling.”
By the third or fourth interview, I noticed that I was repeating the same feedback over and over. That’s when I realized that could codify this into a simple framework that others could use to prepare, even if I couldn’t personally interview everyone.
Over the next few days, I pulled together a cheat sheet, essentially a checklist of the things I’ve learned to look for after years of interviewing:
Requirements & assumptions clearly captured – Know the problem you’re solving.
Database choice & schema considered – Think through tables, keys, and indexes.
APIs listed with auth & validation – Map endpoints to requirements.
One-box design sketched – Give a high-level overview.
End-to-end flow explained – Walk through data movement tied to requirements.
Tradeoffs & scaling next steps – Show you’ve thought about growth and alternatives.
Metrics for non-functional requirements – Identify what you’d monitor and why.
It’s simple, but the repetition makes it powerful. The checklist is a guide, not a guarantee. It can help structure your thinking, spot gaps, and communicate clearly during a system design interview.
I’m sharing it here because preparing for interviews can feel overwhelming. If you’re currently navigating the job market and want to practice a mock system design session, reach out. I can’t do endless interviews, but I’ll do what I can to help.
Here is the link to the cheat sheet that I prepared based on my rubric https://bit.ly/4pnGvkd
Reply to me and let me know if I missed out any points