Design a URL Shortener
This interview assesses the candidate's ability to design a scalable and efficient URL shortener service. The focus is on understanding system architecture, data storage, and fault tolerance.
You will be asked 6 questions covering different aspects of the topic.
How would you design a basic URL shortener service? Describe the core components and their interactions.
What strategies would you use to ensure that the generated short URLs are unique?
Discuss how you would handle scalability in your URL shortener design to accommodate a growing number of users.
What data storage solution would you choose for storing the mappings between short URLs and original URLs? Justify your choice.
How would you ensure the reliability and availability of the URL shortener service?
What measures would you implement to prevent abuse and ensure security in your URL shortener service?
- How to explain System Architecture clearly and confidently.
- How to explain Basic Components clearly and confidently.
- How to explain Interactions clearly and confidently.
- How to explain Uniqueness clearly and confidently.
- How to explain Hashing clearly and confidently.
- Basic familiarity with system_design.
- Basic familiarity with scalability.
- Basic familiarity with architecture.
- Basic familiarity with data_storage.
Take your time to think through each question before answering. The AI evaluator will assess your thought process, not just the final answer.
Discuss trade-offs and explain why you chose a particular approach over alternatives.