I spent the first few minutes just trying to figure out what angle they wanted.
Start by clarifying the goal of the redesign—whether it's to improve real-time collaboration, performance, or scalability—and then outline a structured approach that covers user needs, technical architecture, and trade-offs. Focus on demonstrating product sense and system design skills by proposing a scalable, feature-rich solution that addresses current pain points.
Pro tip: Show awareness of Flipkart's scale and constraints by discussing how your design would handle millions of concurrent users and integrate with existing Flipkart services, rather than just copying Google Docs.
Ask clarifying questions to understand the scope: Is this for consumers or enterprises? What are the key pain points? What scale? This ensures you're solving the right problem.
List essential features (real-time collaboration, offline mode, version history) and prioritize them based on user personas (e.g., students, professionals, teams).
Outline a scalable, fault-tolerant architecture using microservices, real-time sync (e.g., WebSockets, CRDTs), and cloud storage. Discuss data models and APIs.
Discuss trade-offs between consistency, availability, and latency (CAP theorem). Explain how to handle scaling, security, and integration with other services.
Summarize your design, highlighting how it meets the goals, and suggest metrics for success. Be open to feedback and iterate based on interviewer input.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.