Tips for SML System Design Interview?

Discussion Forum
1

Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming system design interview for an SML (Specific Machine Learning) position at a FAANG company, and I’m looking for advice on how to prepare. I’m majorly interested in:

  • Key topics and concepts I should focus on
  • Common questions or problems they might ask
  • Resources or study materials that could help
  • Any tips for structuring my answers and presenting my design

If anyone has been through a similar interview or has experience in system design for ML systems, I’ll appreciate hearing your insights,

Thanks in advance.

1 Like
2

For an SML (System Design) interview, focus on scalability, reliability, and simplicity. Understand trade-offs in design choices, use appropriate data structures and algorithms, and communicate clearly about system components, interactions, and potential optimizations.

3

You should definitely take a look at the free Google SRE books. They offer valuable insights and are worth your time. I found it really helpful to understand how to quantify a system’s reliability, the adverse effects it can have on the user experience, designing fail safes, using the “golden” signals to identify issues, and effectively using alerting to isolate real problems.