← Anthropic Interview Insights
Started with the basics, eviction policies, LRU vs LFU, and then got into storage layers pretty quickly.
Start by clarifying requirements and constraints, then propose a high-level design with core components like cache eviction, storage, and concurrency. Discuss trade-offs between different strategies (e.g., LRU vs. LFU, memory vs. disk) and how they impact performance, scalability, and reliability.
Pro tip: Emphasize the importance of measuring cache effectiveness with metrics like hit ratio and latency, and be prepared to discuss how you would handle cache invalidation and consistency in a distributed environment.
Ask questions to understand the scope: file sizes, access patterns, consistency needs, scalability, and performance targets. This ensures your design addresses the actual problem.
Outline the main components: cache storage (memory/disk), eviction policy, indexing, and concurrency control. Sketch a simple architecture diagram.
Discuss eviction policies (LRU, LFU, etc.), data structures (hash maps, linked lists), and how to handle concurrent access. Consider trade-offs for each choice.
Explain how the design scales (sharding, replication) and handles failures (persistence, recovery). Discuss consistency models if distributed.
Summarize trade-offs (e.g., memory vs. disk, latency vs. throughput) and propose metrics to monitor cache performance (hit ratio, eviction rate).
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.