Does this give me a full model solution?

No, by design. It gives you the prompt an interviewer might ask, plus the considerations they would likely probe, so you practice the actual work of designing rather than reading someone else’s answer.

How should I use the considerations list?

Treat it as a checklist after you have sketched your own design — see how many you addressed naturally before you look at it, otherwise you are just reading a hint sheet.

Why does the same prompt appear every time for a given domain and level?

So you can practice the same prompt again later and compare your answer, or share the exact prompt with a study partner for a mock session.

System design prompt generator

System design practice is more useful with a prompt scoped to your actual level — a junior prompt and a staff-level prompt for "design a URL shortener" ask for genuinely different depth.

Pick a domain and a level and this returns one prompt plus the follow-up considerations an interviewer would likely raise, so you know what to think through, not just what to draw.

URL shortener — mid-level

Prompt ready

Same domain and level always return this exact prompt

Your prompt

Design a URL shortener that needs to handle 10,000 redirects per second with low latency.

Things a strong answer would address:
- Where would you cache the mapping to avoid hitting the database on every redirect?
- How would you shard the storage as the number of URLs grows?
- How would you support custom aliases without colliding with generated ones?

Consideration 1: Where would you cache the mapping to avoid hitting the database on every redirect?
Consideration 2: How would you shard the storage as the number of URLs grows?
Consideration 3: How would you support custom aliases without colliding with generated ones?

Everything above is worked out in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or saved anywhere.

How this is worked out

Each domain and level pair maps to one hand-written prompt and a fixed list of considerations.
The level changes the scale and constraints named in the prompt, not just its wording — junior prompts stay single-machine in spirit, senior ones assume multi-region scale.
There is no randomness: the same domain and level always return the same prompt.

What this does not cover

The bank is authored by hand for six common domains, not generated by an AI call.
This gives you the prompt and what to think about, not a model answer — working through the design is still on you.
Only three levels and six domains exist today; a very specific or unusual domain will not be in the bank.

Questions people ask

Does this give me a full model solution?: No, by design. It gives you the prompt an interviewer might ask, plus the considerations they would likely probe, so you practice the actual work of designing rather than reading someone else’s answer.
How should I use the considerations list?: Treat it as a checklist after you have sketched your own design — see how many you addressed naturally before you look at it, otherwise you are just reading a hint sheet.
Why does the same prompt appear every time for a given domain and level?: So you can practice the same prompt again later and compare your answer, or share the exact prompt with a study partner for a mock session.

Where these figures come from

Rates and rules on this page were last checked against the source on 31 August 2026. Tax law changes; check the source before you rely on a number for a decision.

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