Start by clarifying requirements and constraints, then outline a high-level architecture covering ingestion, storage, processing, and delivery. Dive into key components like video encoding, CDN, and adaptive streaming, discussing trade-offs and scalability at each step.
Pro tip: Emphasize trade-offs and justify your choices based on requirements; interviewers value thoughtful decision-making over listing technologies. Also, proactively mention monitoring, failure handling, and cost considerations to show production maturity.
Ask questions to understand scale, features (e.g., live streaming, DRM), latency, and budget constraints. Define functional and non-functional requirements.
Sketch the main components: upload/ingest, transcoding pipeline, storage, CDN, and client playback. Explain data flow from upload to viewing.
Discuss video encoding (formats, bitrates), adaptive streaming (HLS/DASH), CDN strategy, and storage tiers. Explain how to handle scalability and reliability.
Analyze trade-offs like cost vs. performance, latency vs. quality, and build vs. buy. Identify potential bottlenecks and mitigation strategies.
Mention monitoring, logging, and alerting. Suggest possible improvements like AI-driven recommendations or edge computing.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.