Platform Engineering Interview Cheat Sheet

System Design Framework (1-2-3-4)

1. Clarify Requirements: Ask for scale (requests/sec), storage needs, read/write ratio.
2. High-Level Design: Sketch the core components and API contracts.
3. Detailed Design: Dive into the database choice, cache, and message queues.
4. Identify Bottlenecks: Discuss SPOFs, load balancers, and scaling strategies.

Key Trade-offs to Mention

• SQL vs. NoSQL: ACID compliance vs. horizontal scaling.
• Pull vs. Push: Polling vs. webhooks/websockets.
• Monolith vs. Microservices: Simplicity of deployment vs. independent scaling.

The STAR Method

• Situation: Context.
• Task: Your responsibility.
• Action: What you did.
• Result: The measurable impact.