The key click for me was separating the Version class from the Recipe class early.
Start by clarifying functional and non-functional requirements, then design a data model that captures recipe versions as immutable snapshots or deltas. Describe the versioning mechanism, rollback process, and how to handle concurrency and storage efficiency. Finally, discuss trade-offs and potential optimizations.
Pro tip: Emphasize that rollback should be non-destructive—create a new version that reverts to a previous state rather than deleting history. This preserves auditability and aligns with real-world systems like Git.
Ask about expected scale, read/write patterns, consistency needs, and whether rollback should be immediate or eventual. Confirm if version history must be preserved indefinitely.
Propose a schema with Recipe and RecipeVersion entities, where each version stores a full snapshot or a delta from the previous version. Include metadata like version number, timestamp, and author.
Describe how new versions are created on updates and how rollback works by selecting a target version and creating a new version that mirrors it. Discuss concurrency control (e.g., optimistic locking).
Discuss trade-offs between full snapshots and deltas, and suggest strategies like compression, archiving old versions, or using a version control system (e.g., Git-like) for efficiency.
Summarize pros and cons of your approach, and mention possible extensions like branching, merging, or integration with event sourcing.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.