Start by clarifying requirements and constraints (scale, legal standards, retention) to frame the design. Then propose a high-level architecture that ensures immutability, verifiability, and durability, diving into key components like event schema, storage, and integrity mechanisms. Finally, discuss trade-offs, operational aspects (monitoring, DR, cost), and a phased rollout plan.
Pro tip: Emphasize tamper-evidence through cryptographic chaining and digital signatures, and discuss how to handle legal holds and e-discovery without compromising scalability. Show awareness of Axon's domain by referencing evidence integrity and chain of custody standards.
Ask questions to understand scale (events/sec, data volume), legal and regulatory requirements (e.g., chain of custody, retention periods), and non-functional needs (latency, durability, cost).
Propose a distributed, append-only log with immutable storage, using a write-ahead log for durability and a verifiable chain of custody via cryptographic hashing and signatures. Include components for ingestion, storage, indexing, and access.
Elaborate on event schema (metadata, hashes, signatures), storage tiers (hot/warm/cold), integrity mechanisms (Merkle trees, blockchain-like chaining), encryption (at rest and in transit), and access controls (RBAC, audit trails).
Explain partitioning, replication, and indexing for scalability; retention policies with automated deletion; and legal hold mechanisms that override deletion and support e-discovery queries.
Discuss monitoring, disaster recovery (backups, multi-region), cost trade-offs (storage classes, compression), and a testing/rollout plan (canary, load testing, compliance validation).
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.