LinkedIn Software Engineer System Design Questions
36+ questions from real LinkedIn Software Engineer System Design rounds, reported by candidates who interviewed there.
What does the LinkedIn System Design round test?
The LinkedIn system design round assesses a candidate's ability to architect scalable systems. Software Engineer candidates are typically asked to design a large-scale service or platform from scratch, covering database choices, API design, scaling strategy, and failure modes.
Top Topics in This Round
LinkedIn Software Engineer System Design Questions
LinkedIn Software Engineer Infrastructure Interview Experience and Rejection
Hi everyone, Recently got interviewed at LinkedIn for Software Engg. Infrastructure role. ## Background YOE - 3.6 years (Backend engineer, Java, Spring boot) ## Screening Round This round consisted of
LinkedIn SWE IC2 System Design Interview Experience
System design round at LinkedIn. It focuses on both HLD and LLd. Duration - 60 mins. question - Design a metric collection and querying system. The system will both collect metrics from a large fleet
Interview Experience: 6-Round Full-Stack Senior Software Engineer LinkedIn
haring a recent **full-stack senior-level interview experience at LinkedIn**, which may help others preparing for similar roles. The process consisted of **6 rounds**, covering both frontend and backe
Design Distributed Job Scheduler.
Distributed Job scheduler: YOE: 3.5 Functional Requirements: \t Create and schedule a job. \t\t\ti) one time job. \t\t\tii) recurring job. \t\t\tiii) Priority based job can be scheduled. Can check the status of the Job. Non...
Got reject from LinkedIn
Although I have more than 6 years of experience, I have applied for a Software engineer role. I felt I performed really well in all the 6 virtual on-site interviews. I was able to code all the questio
Nike | Software Engineer - II (SWE- II) | Bengaluru | Nov-Dec 2024 (Offer)
I was interviewed for Software Engineer - II which was a full stack role. I had applied in LinkedIn for this role on 15th Nov 2024. Got a call from recruiter...
LinkedIn Interview Result waiting time...
YOE: 3.5 TC: 40 I\'ve recently completed onsite loop for SSE role at LinkedIn India. Wanted to check how many days it generally takes to hear back result from recruiter? If anybody...
LinkedIn SSE Onsite Interviews Result waiting Time?
YOE: 3.5 TC: 40 I've recently completed onsite loop for SSE role at LinkedIn India. Wanted to check how many days it generally takes to hear back result from recruiter? If anybody from LinkedIn or som
Got a SDE job after 10 months of job hunting and 4 months of unpaid internship
I wanted to share my story and motivate anyone who's looking for a job out there. I started looking for a full-time SDE job in DEC 2024 as I was about to graduate in May 2025. I grinded LeetCode for m
Zynga SDE-2 Interview Experience 2024
I applied through Linkedin and got a follow up after a Month or so, Round1 (DSA) Q.1 Given a text/String , Return exactly K most frequent words. Solved it using a Map and...
Did I get rejected because I had LeetCode stats on my LinkedIn ?
Couple of days ago I interviewed for a backend engineer role at Navan, and got into the initial loop which consisted of 2 rounds, a Code Design (LLD), and a DSA round. Code design is with an Engineeri
Linkedin | SSE | Bangalore | May 2024
Status : 7 YoE . Reached out on call, given 3 weeks of prep time. Contributing back to LC, since LC helped a lot in preparation. Coding 1: 1. Find the celebrity. Could not...
ThoughtSpot MTS3 Interview Experience
YOE:3 Interview June End, July Beginning 2024 Recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn 1. Problem Solving Round (DSA)- LC Medium Question( Dont remeber from which topic it was) 2. Coding Round (DSA)-...
Postman SDE-2 Interview Experience | Rejected
Background - 4 YOE in a product + early stage startup - Applied through linkedin, HR reached out after 3 months - Location - Bangalore HR Call Had a 5-10 min chat with the HR...
Salesforce | MTS | September 2024 | Select
Recruiter approached via LinkedIn Location: Hyderabad\u2028YOE: 4\u2028Role: MTS - Software Engineering\u2028Org: Service Cloud - Java Backend OA:\u2028Two Medium DSA Questions - Solved both R1 (1 hr) :\xA0DS - 2 medium questions \t\u2022\tRecursion + Backtracking...
Flipkart SDE-2 Interview Experience | June 2024
Hi All, I just wanted to let you guys know of the terrible HR team of Flipkart and get your opinions on to what this situation is !! I interviewed with Flipkart...
Cohesity India MTS 3 | reject
current company: tier-1 yeo: 5 ctc- 40LPA Experience: was contacted by recruiter over LinkedIn. Recruiter mentioned that I\'m not eligible for MTS-4 with my year of experience so went with MTS-3 interview. I was told there...
LinkedIn Senior Software Engineer | Final Round | US
Nov 2024 Tech Screen: 1) Similar to https://leetcode.com/problems/valid-parentheses/description/?envType=company&envId=linkedin&favoriteSlug=linkedin-six-months 2) https://leetcode.com/problems/nested-list-weight-sum-ii/description/?envType=company&envId=linkedin&favoriteSlug=linkedin-three-months Final: \tCoding 1: \t\tSimilar to https://leetcode.com/problems/find-the-celebrity/ except the list is a 2D array representing relations. \t\tExample Input: \t\tInput List: numbers = [0, 1, 2, 3] \t\tRelation Matrix: \t\trelation = [\t\t...
LinkedIn Onsite | Staff
System Design: LinkedIn provides public APIs to access data on LinkedIn\'s platforms. Each API call is subject to a daily quota on a per company/per user basis. Design a system to enforce...
System design
Hi folks! I was asked this question in Linkedin interview a couple of years back. Can someone please help me with this system design question? Design a search based system...
What to Expect in the LinkedIn System Design Round
The LinkedIn Software Engineer System Design round has a specific calibration purpose distinct from other rounds in the loop. Across 36+ verified reports on LeakCode for this exact round type, the consistent expectations: clear scoping of the problem before diving into a solution, explicit reasoning about complexity, structured handling of edge cases, and the ability to discuss trade-offs between two reasonable approaches.
Reports tagged with the System Design round at LinkedIn show recurring patterns in difficulty and topic distribution. The System Design round is typically 45-60 minutes; the interviewer is calibrated against a specific rubric. The discriminator between candidates who advance and candidates who do not is rarely the final correctness of the answer. It is the path: did you clarify, did you verbalize your approach, did you handle edge cases, and did you communicate throughout.
How To Prepare for This Specific Round
Filter the questions below to the most recent reports (past 6-12 months). Questions tagged for this exact round type from this exact company at this exact role level are the highest-signal data available. Older reports may reference questions that have since rotated out of the company's pool.
Practice 4-6 representative problems from this set under timed conditions. The goal is not memorization (companies rotate questions); the goal is to internalize the patterns the interviewer typically reaches for and the depth of follow-up to expect. Reports on LeakCode also tag the typical follow-up depth at this round type, which is the discriminating signal between hire and no-hire calibration.
System Design Round Timing and Format
The System Design round at LinkedIn typically runs 45-60 minutes. Use the first 2-3 minutes to clarify requirements; you should never start coding or designing without verifying the input/output format, constraints, and edge cases out loud. Use the next 5-7 minutes to verbalize your approach before writing any code. The middle 20-30 minutes are implementation. Reserve the final 10 minutes for testing with concrete examples and discussing optimization or trade-offs.
Time budget discipline is one of the most reliable senior-vs-junior discriminators in this round. Strong candidates verbalize where they are in their budget out loud ("I've used about 20 minutes, I have 15 minutes left for testing and one optimization"). This signals engineering maturity to the interviewer and creates positive feedback they can capture in writing.
Common Failure Modes in This Round
Reports tagged "no hire" at LinkedIn Software Engineer System Design commonly cite: coding silently without verbalizing approach, jumping to implementation before clarifying requirements, missing edge cases (empty input, single element, very large input), producing working code that the candidate cannot refactor when asked, and failing to test their solution with concrete examples before declaring done.
The single most predictive failure mode in 2025-2026 reports: not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers at all FAANG companies are explicitly trained to weight this dimension. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's notes.
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