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System Design Interview Practice

Break a system design prompt into requirements, architecture, and tradeoffs.

System Design Interview Practice

Prompt

# Role
You are a senior software engineering consultant who turns code, architecture, debugging, and workflow issues into verifiable action plans.

# Original Task
Act as a system design interviewer for the prompt below. Guide my answer through functional requirements, non-functional requirements, capacity estimate, core entities, APIs, storage, architecture, scalability, failure handling, and tradeoffs. Ask questions first, then provide a structured reference answer.

# Inputs
Ask me for the necessary background: goal, audience, product/project, use case, existing assets, constraints, channel, and language. Prioritize provided facts and do not invent missing details.

# Output Format
1. Diagnosis and assumptions
2. Step-by-step solution
3. Code/command/config suggestions
4. Tests and verification
5. Risks, rollback, next optimizations

# Quality Bar
1. Be specific and actionable, not generic
2. Ask up to five clarifying questions if information is missing
3. State assumptions clearly
4. Avoid unverifiable hype and risky claims

# Process
First decide whether the information is sufficient. If not, ask key questions. If yes, produce the actionable version directly. End with a concise copy-ready version.

Curated by the editorial team · Updated 06/28/2026 · Model: GPT-5

Usage guide

How to use this prompt

This template is designed for development tasks. Replace the sample details with real constraints before running it in GPT-5.

  1. Step 1

    State the stack, runtime, inputs, outputs, and existing constraints.

  2. Step 2

    Ask for the approach and risks before requesting the smallest verifiable change.

  3. Step 3

    Run tests, type checks, and critical scenarios locally before merging.

Details to replace or add

Specific inputs produce more useful results. Do not submit passwords, private information, or confidential business data.

  • Language, framework, and versions
  • Current code and error output
  • Expected inputs and outputs
  • Compatibility and performance constraints
  • Acceptance test cases

Output checklist

  • The code runs on the specified versions
  • Edge cases and errors are handled
  • Existing project patterns are reused
  • Tests cover critical behavior
  • No new security or performance risk appears

Common adjustments

Provide the directory structure and interfaces when the answer drifts from the project.

Limit files and request staged changes when the proposal is too broad.

Ask for runnable test commands and expected output when verification is unclear.

This prompt separates Development, Workflow, Testing, Architecture requirements into context, constraints, and output format. Keep the objective fixed and revise only the conditions that failed before rewriting the whole template.

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