I jumped straight into the video ingestion pipeline before even scoping what 'live streaming' meant in this context.
Start by clarifying the product goals and constraints, then outline a high-level architecture covering ingestion, processing, distribution, and client playback. Dive into key technical trade-offs (e.g., latency vs. scalability, cost vs. quality) and tie them back to user experience and business metrics. Conclude with how you would measure success and iterate.
Pro tip: Anchor your design around the critical user journey (streamer to viewer) and explicitly discuss how you'd handle scale spikes from popular streamers, as this is a common failure point. Also, mention Meta's existing infrastructure (e.g., CDN, AI recommendations) to show you can leverage internal assets.
Ask questions to understand scope: target users, key features (live chat, VOD, monetization), scale (concurrent viewers, streamers), latency requirements, and business objectives. Define success metrics like engagement, retention, and revenue.
Sketch the end-to-end flow: streamer ingests via RTMP/SRT, transcoding into multiple bitrates, packaging (HLS/DASH), distribution via CDN, and playback on clients. Include supporting services like chat, recommendations, and analytics.
Pick 2-3 critical areas (e.g., low-latency streaming, chat scalability, content moderation) and discuss design choices, trade-offs, and alternatives. Explain how you'd handle peak load and ensure reliability.
Discuss trade-offs such as latency vs. cost, quality vs. bandwidth, and build vs. buy. Consider constraints like budget, team expertise, and time-to-market. Prioritize features based on impact and effort.
Define how you'd measure success (e.g., viewer retention, stream quality, chat engagement) and outline a plan for iterative improvements based on data and user feedback.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.