Dataford
Top 50
Topic roadmap
Updated weekly · Last refresh Sep 13

Top 50 distributed systems Interview Questions

The most frequently asked distributed systems questions across all roles and companies, ranked by real interview frequency. Updated daily.

50questions
~7htotal time
137companies covered
Track your progressSign up free to work through all 50 questions and resume where you left off.
Start practicing free →
1
System DesignStart here. 49 questions · ~392 min
Design a Highly Available ML Serving PlatformMedium
Recently asked

Design a distributed ML serving platform that stays available and scales under failures, traffic spikes, and model updates.

distributed systemsscalabilityhigh availabilityPPorterGlobal Payment HoldingCisco Restaurant + Bar
Data Consistency in MicroservicesHard
Recently asked

Tests your consistency strategy across services, including transactions and eventual consistency.

distributed systemsconsistencymicroservicesExperian HealthBrexFundbox
Vector Search for Massive DatasetsHard
Recently asked

Design a distributed vector search index that supports massive collections while maintaining low query latency and reliable freshness.

Vector Searchlow latencydistributed systemsAAgileengineGrafana LabsReply
Design a Collaborative Spreadsheet ServiceHard

Design a Google Sheets-like backend with concurrent editing, durable storage, snapshots, and scalable save/load paths.

production systemsdatabase accessdistributed systemsSalesforce
Ensure Data ConsistencyHard
Recently asked

Tests your understanding of consistency models, distributed transactions, and practical trade-offs.

distributed systemsdata consistencyarchitectureJPMorganChase_VOISAAirtel Digital
Design a Rate LimiterHard
Recently asked

Design a distributed rate limiter that prevents API traffic from exceeding a configured QPS limit.

high-frequency requestsdistributed systemsapi gatewayEExpress PortablesBBirdeyeGoogle
Microservices MetricsHard

Identify the key Datadog metrics for detecting latency, errors, saturation, dependency failures, and user-impacting incidents in microservices.

latencyFeature Storedistributed systemsDatadog
Datadog Monitoring for E-CommerceHard

Design a Datadog monitoring solution for a high-traffic eCommerce platform, covering telemetry, anomaly detection, alerting, and operational response.

ML Rankingdistributed systemsModel ServingDatadog
More System Design questions with a free account

Sign up to see every question

Create a free account to unlock this list and practice real interview questions.

Get my prep plan
2
More topics1 question · ~8 min
More questions with a free account
The finish line: interview-readyComplete all 50 questions to finish this plan.