Mohit Baid

System Design Interview #1 System design interviews are very different from other rounds in the SDE hiring process. In rounds like DSA or Machine Coding, there’s typically a clear finish line—a working solution is expected by the end of the interview. However, system design interviews are more like technical discussions with a colleague. They focus on exploring trade-offs, scalability, ambiguity, and decision-making rather than arriving at a fixed solution. At most mid-to-large-size companies, a typical project follows this process: 1. Product handover: Product team hands over requirements to engineering. 2. Solution design: Engineering drafts a solution, which is then reviewed by peers. 3. Implementation & testing: Solution is implemented and rigorously tested. 4. Launch & monitoring: The solution is deployed and monitored post-launch. Having experienced this end-to-end process gives you an edge in handling ambiguity and evaluating trade-offs—skills often honed only through practical experience. For those without this experience, system design interviews might appear to focus solely on Step 2 (Solution Design), which can lead to common pitfalls, especially when interviewing for senior positions. In the next posts, we’ll cover: 1. Common mistakes in system design interviews. 2. A structured approach for system design problems.

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System Design Interview #2 Continuing from the last post https://lnkd.in/ghHkAcW3 let's look into common category of mistakes people make in system design interviews. 1. Failing to Scope down the Problem: You can't design Netflix in an hour, problems are made vague intentionally and you are expected to scope down the problem to something you can manage in 1 hour. 2. Lacking Knowledge of System Capacities: Know your numbers (e.g., EC2/DB load limits/cross continent latency etc). If you don't know the in-memory/disk read latency how would you know when to optimise or not ?. This is crucial for scaling decisions & justifications. 3. Over-engineering Solutions: Remember: Premature optimization is the root of all evil. You are not judged on the basis of how complex a system you can design, it is rather the opposite. Start with something simple and add complexity when it is justified. in next post we will talk about a structured approach for system design interview. #SystemDesignInterview #TechInterviewTips #CodingInterviews #EngineeringCareers

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"𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘆 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿," my manager said, "𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻." ❌ It hit me hard. I got this feedback in my 2016 performance review. When I first got promoted to Mid-Senior Engineer in my career, I felt like I was in power. Instead of acknowledging others' opinions, I imposed my own. Upon receiving this feedback, I couldn’t sleep that night — replaying conversations in my head — realizing how often I shut down differing opinions and pushed my agenda. 😔 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦? I am sharing a 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝘆 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 "𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹" 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄'𝘀 𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿, and also how I addressed those. Sharing our vulnerabilities isn’t easy. I thought long and hard about whether to write this article, but I decided to give it a shot. If even one person reading this can benefit from my experiences, it will be worth it. 🙌 Stay tuned and subscribe now to not miss it. 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀.

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🔔 Hiring Alert: Staff Software Engineer Are you someone having over 6 years of work experience and looking to jump into a staff engineering role at a leading payments company, or looking for a job change for a more flexible culture? Visa is hiring! Read the requirements carefully, below: 1. Have a good experience with Java, Spring Boot, and Angular/React. 2. Familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes. 3. Familiarity with GenAI tools and techniques will be a nice brownie point. 4. Have hands-on experience with distributed systems and cloud technologies (You will be working with Visa Private Cloud and scale it to be on par with the public cloud technologies). If you meet all the expectations (or most of them), please directly reach out to Srijan Mukherjee who's the hiring manager, with a clear and concise pitch (2-3 points) about why you'd be a good fit, along with your resume and any proof of work. Alternatively, you can directly go ahead and apply to the job posting. Attaching the JD link in the comments. Also, sharing the link to the post by the hiring manager for more details in the comments. ❌ Don'ts 1. Please reach out only if you have the relevant experience, especially with Java and distributed systems. If you spam without basic diligence and research on the role, it will be difficult to reply. 2. This is a Staff Software Engineer (Fullstack) position and requires good prior experience. Please don't reach out seeking fresher or junior opportunities. You can explore other career opportunities directly on the jobs page. ✅ Some tips for interview/profile prep. 1. Explore how you can align your resume, experience and projects relevant to the JD. 2. Check online on platforms like Leetcode, Glassdoor, etc to research on the interview process, questions and concepts generally asked and prep accordingly. All the best. For any queries, you can directly reach out to the hiring team manager (I'm not part of that team).

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If I were to combine all the golden advice from senior engineers (at Amazon, Hike & Google) I’ve gathered over the last 8+ years, these 15 lines would be it. A must-read for software engineers in their 20s (for good career growth) 1. Set high standards for the quality of everything you do. 2. Stay hydrated, take breaks, and prioritize your health. 3. Even under tight deadlines, never settle for writing bad code. 4. Keep learning, stay humble, and always put in the effort. 5. Use existing tools and libraries instead of reinventing them. 6. Break problems into small, manageable pieces and solve them. 7. Keep your work projects and personal projects separate. 8. Stay informed—read technical blogs and articles regularly. 9. Take time to work on side projects to gain new skills. 10. Don’t let ego stop you from asking for help. 11. Master the fundamentals before diving into advanced concepts. 12. Be approachable—don’t act like you know it all. 13. Comment your code clearly for others who'll work on it. 14. Write tests to prevent bugs from making it to production. 15. Keep your team in the loop—communicate openly and often.

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Do Data Engineer profiles hold less value compared to Software Engineer profiles?? Looking at the compensation for the Data Engineer 1 position at Amazon, it seems quite good in terms of numbers 🤑 but appears lower when compared to an SDE role. Some argue that the two roles are almost the same in value, but in reality 📌 , other companies often show a significant difference in compensation between data and developer roles. I believe 😎Data Engineers are no less important than leading roles such as Data Scientist, Software Engineer, or Full Stack Developer. Moreover, it’s not easy role for someone starting their career in DE or transitioning from another domain. What do you think about this parity, and what makes Data Engineers stand out? 👇 Follow Gunashekar Chenna for more 😊 #dataengineer #softwareengineer #seniorsoftwareengineer #amazon #intuit #kotakmahindra #qualcomm #tcs #interviews #compensation #datascientist #dataanalyst

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Here are the 3️⃣ things If I had to reappear for the SDE interview at a Product-Based Company today! Many working professionals aspire to work at companies like Amazon, MoEngage, Microsoft, and others. If I had to reappear for interviews at companies, here's what I would focus on doing better: 👉 I would focus on arrays, trees, graphs, sorting, and dynamic programming and practice problems daily. It would help me improve my coding and problem-solving abilities. 👉 Would revisit design patterns, scalability, and distributed systems. I'd practice designing scalable, high-performance systems to ensure I can handle design questions confidently. 👉 Focus on building projects to demonstrate my practical skills. A portfolio of projects can serve as proof of my abilities and help me strengthen my resume. Preparing for SDE interviews at PBCs requires Dedication & Consistent Practice. If you're looking for structured guidance and mentorship to ace your interviews, I’d suggest checking Bosscoder Academy Check here: https://bit.ly/4duh8a7 They can help you with ✅ Structured programs for learning DSA, System Design, and Full Stack Development. ✅ Personal mentorship from industry veterans. ✅ Live classes and 24/7 doubt support. ✅ Real-life, relevant projects with Placement Assistance.

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I work in a team in Amazon which manages tax data collection and its lifecycle for Millions of payees of ~80 businesses belonging to ~75 countries. The team has to deal frequently with the changing tax rules in 75 countries, customization requests from clients, etc. The key thing that I have learnt working in this team is that the engineering teams should write as minimum as possible business logic. Instead, engineering teams should invest on creating foundational services which enable treating business logic as configuration. This helps to achieve business goals in reduced time and less operational burden.

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Think on These Things !!! Few folks just want to work all time, they don’t bother about work-life balance at all. They find some reason (justification) to spend all their time behind their Job .. reasons like this year is layoff so work hard to secure the job, this year is promotion pending so work hard, this year is recession so work hard, this year I got very ineresting project so work hard. They also convince their family that they need to work hard so family need to keep low expectation from them wrt family matters and quality time. In all these the only problem is — they don’t know that it’s not the job but they are the problem. #job #worklifebalance #softwareengineer

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Alexa, change my title to SDE 2! Hi everyone, I have been promoted to the next level at Amazon. Amazon's evaluation process differs from what you typically write in a work document. This difference offers a unique perspective on how your work is assessed. In hindsight everything seems obvious, so I won't discuss specific successes or failures. However, I want to highlight the lessons I learned, which I'll both apply in the future. 1. Look out for impactful work. 2. My job is not just to create tools or write code but also seek feedback from users and advertise it to potential users. Here is to new learnings and responsibilities. At last but not least. It has been amazing co-workers like Krishnaprasad Krishnamoorthy , Rajkumar Pandian and many more who, I cannot mention as list will go beyond the limit who have played a key role in the whole process.

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One of the best System Design Mock Interview Videos I ever came across. 1. Effective Communication Skills: • Mark demonstrates exceptional communication skills, a crucial trait for Engineering Managers (EMs), especially when interacting with non-technical stakeholders. His approach—breaking down complex problems, using placeholders, and clearly outlining his thought process—makes technical discussions more accessible and inclusive. 2. Structured Problem-Solving Approach: • Mark doesn’t rush through the problem; instead, he takes deliberate steps, ensuring that each component of the system design is thoroughly explored. His methodical approach highlights the importance of understanding the problem space before jumping into solutions, a valuable lesson for anyone involved in system design. 3. Emphasizing Clarity Over Speed: • Unlike the common pressure to think quickly in interviews, Mark’s strength lies in his clarity and structured thinking. His style—marked by pauses and thoughtful detours—shows that taking time to articulate ideas clearly can be more effective than rapid, but less thoughtful, responses. 4. Importance for Engineering Managers: • As EMs frequently bridge the gap between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders, Mark’s ability to communicate complex concepts in an understandable way is a model for other managers. His style can inspire current and aspiring EMs to focus on clarity, patience, and adaptability in their communication. Key Takeaway: • This mock interview isn’t just a lesson in system design but also in leadership communication. It exemplifies how to navigate complex technical discussions gracefully and effectively—a critical skill for any senior engineering role.

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** Unfortunate Experience with Amazon: Seeking Guidance ** On March 30, 2024, I placed an order with Amazon for a Boat neckband and Boat earbuds. While the neckband arrived in good condition, the earbuds turned out to be defective upon receipt. Naturally, I initiated a return order, and the defective earbuds were collected on April 19, 2024. However, over a month later, I'm still awaiting my refund. Each time I reach out to customer support, I'm told an investigation is ongoing, and worse, I've been accused of potentially returning a different item. Despite their agent verifying and collecting the item, I continue to face delays and blame for an issue that's beyond my control. I filed a complaint on the consumer portal, only to receive a response stating that the product wasn't returned, despite confirmation from their own agent. Here's an excerpt from their communication: "Dear Sir, On review of your complaint and on the information received from the third-party seller we find that you have not returned the product delivered to you vide Order Id 403-8363294-1083540. Accordingly, neither refund nor replacement order can be initiated. Please note that the seller initiates refund only after receipt of the original product as per return policy. Further, it is submitted that our role is limited to that of an intermediary and we are not the seller/manufacturer of the products listed on our e-commerce marketplace. The products listed on our e-commerce marketplace are sold by independent third-party sellers. In view of the above, the issue stands closed. Thank You." I find myself at an impasse and seek your guidance. What steps would you recommend I take next in this scenario? Your insights and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. #CustomerService #AdviceNeeded #AmazonExperience #boat

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In the end, the issue here is abuse of low cost labor (not skilled + low cost — just low cost). I’ve worked with plenty of companies who have made this mistake and suffer for it (Nissan is a BIG one). This isn’t something anyone should be encouraging. It’s not about “competition”. This is a conversation on extortion.

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Few of my observations from buying a house in the Bay Area this year : - people in the bay area are extremely wealthy - reverse culture shock : bidding wars where offers are $500K+ over the listed price - bay area houses will always have value due to high demand, low supply, and the region's tech leadership - the process is emotionally draining and depressing for a first time home buyer without much liquid cash for bids — each bid feels like a gamble - people often wait long time here (around a year) to buy a house, getting accepted only after their 10th or 11th offer due to constant outbidding - the competition is fierce — buyers are waiving contingencies to secure a property - investment potential is high given the area's economic stability and growth #homebuyer #bayarea

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Amazon-to-Google-to-Amazon #a2g2a thought of the day: Swimming lanes (aka Ownership).  An Amazon SDE is a jack-of-all-trades. You write code, of course. But also, you wear your QA hat and test your stuff. And you wear your SRE hat and carry a pager and respond to tickets. And you wear your TPM and PMT hats too, talk to customers, decide the shape of your product, and track your progress. There’s no such thing as “staying in your lane” when you’re an Amazon SDE. You do what you need to do to make your business successful. After all, one of our Leadership Principles, Ownership, is defined as: “Leaders are owners […] beyond just their own team. They never say ‘that’s not my job.’”   I’ve always felt comfortable operating in that environment, focusing a lot more on helping my business be successful and impactful than on what is or isn’t part of my role doc.   When I joined Google in 2020, I noticed there were very clear swimming lanes for each role. Google had a massive army of thousands of Engineering Productivity engineers dedicated to creating test tools and infrastructure, although in reality they ended up doing a lot of the testing that SDEs really should have done. Google also had an army of thousands of SREs who handled operations and carried pagers. One day, one of my SDEs said he didn’t know what the customer painpoints were for our product because he didn’t have a TPM. “Why don’t you talk to customers yourself???” I asked both puzzled and frustrated. Our customers were other Google engineers. It wasn’t rocket-science to find them and ask them. But it wasn’t an SDE task.   Amazon does have all these other roles. They just don’t have the massive armies of them that Google has. They are more leveraged (eg 100:1 dev:test ratio).   If you just want to write code and not be bothered by “all the other crap” associated with software engineering, Google is paradise. Other people are hired to deal with all that crap you don’t want to deal with it. I would be willing to bet googlers spent a lot more of their day writing code.   There’s also something to be said about the benefits of specializing in a role. EngProdders were masters of test infra, SREs were masters of operations, etc. When you have a narrow job, you go deep; when you have a broad job, you don’t. For example, as an Amazon engineer, I’ve worn TPM and PMT hats a thousand times, but I’m willing to bet I’m a pretty mediocre one.   And so here lies the tension. Specialization is a Good Thing because it brings deep expertise and craftsmanship, but it creates swimming lanes and things fall between the cracks. There’s an overall lack of end-to-end Ownership. I saw that, over, and over, and over again, in my four years at Google. So much "not my problem."   That did not jive with me. I WANT to do "all the other crap." I enjoy it. It empowers me and my team to fully own our destiny and what we deliver to customers. My product sucks? It’s mine to fix. I don’t get to pass the buck. Simple as that.

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With recent layoffs from major companies like Intuit and Zoom, many are facing uncertain times. These are publicly known layoffs, we do not have a count of silent layoffs. The bad thing is to mark them as low performers, making their next move harder. I have seen the top performer being affected with layoffs from big techs Google, Microsoft etc. These layoffs are the result of cost cutting, strategic changes, adopting the AI but giving the excuse of low performance is not professional. I don't have a one-size-fits-all solution, but I believe sharing perspectives can help. Not everyone has the resources to start their own business and startup. My advice is to make a thoughtful decision: either wait for a better opportunity (though the wait time is unpredictable) or accept the one you are getting now. It's crucial to stay proactive and keep searching for better opportunities. What are your thoughts? #intuit #zoom #layoffs #recession #linkedin

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One golden piece of advice I got from a senior SWE at Amazon, and today, I'll share it with you. Always maintain a work diary. At first, it seemed like simple advice, and I didn't bother much about it. But over time, I've realized its impact on my career. Coding is 70% writing (you are required to write code, documentation, or other things). Having a diary lets you access your most valuable resources whenever you need them. It also lets you record your work and makes it easier to communicate your progress to your team and managers. (It’s kind of like a list of things to brag about :D) The best part about maintaining a work diary is you can track your progress and see how much you've grown and improved, which is incredibly motivating. As long as I'm working, I'll maintain a work diary to keep learning, growing, and staying organized. Do you maintain a work diary?

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An application to offer conversion rate of < 0.3% sounds terribly daunting. That's exactly what Dhruv Loya had to power through to get his full-time offer as a Technical Support Specialist at Tesla after 300+ applications. Each rejection feels like failure and the discouragement never gets easier to swallow. I get it, but I've also learned to accept that one door closing doesn't mean all of them have been shut. You're doing just fine -- keep hitting submit. ⭐️ You also don't have to do it alone. I write a blog where I send internship and scholarship opportunities to your inbox every single day. You can view the exhaustive list here: https://lnkd.in/e6FWb6Uh I have also found Jobright.ai, Handshake, and Hunter.io for cold emailing to be extremely helpful. :)

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