System Design Interview: Design Dropbox or Google Drive w/ a Ex-Meta Staff Engineer

In this podcast, the host offers a step-by-step guide to tackling the popular system design interview question: "Design Dropbox" (or Google Drive). Drawing from experience as a former Meta interviewer, the speaker lays out a clear five-step process: defining both functional and non-functional requirements, pinpointing key entities and APIs, crafting a high-level design, and delving deeper into aspects of scalability and fault tolerance. Listeners will explore the design of Dropbox's essential features—uploading, downloading, and syncing—before enhancing the design to accommodate large files through techniques like chunking and pre-signed URLs. The discussion also covers ways to boost sync speed and consistency by looking into methods such as polling, delta sync, and reconciliation. By the end of the episode, listeners will be equipped with a structured approach and practical tips for successfully navigating similar system design challenges in interviews.