While Google has reduced its use of the technical interview, other product companies have started picking it up.

While coaching the technical interview is not my strength, I do know how to prepare for it.

You need to be able to walk through how to design products from an execution standpoint. You will be given a prompt and you need to walk through how you would approach the technical design.

Key things you will be graded on are covered here. The TL;DR: Focus on the bottleneck.

Sample Questions:

• Designing a URL Shortening service like TinyURL

• Designing Instagram

• Designing Dropbox

• Designing Facebook Messenger

• Designing Twitter

• Designing Youtube or Netflix

• Designing Typeahead Suggestion

• Designing Twitter Search

• Designing a Web Crawler

• Designing Facebook’s Newsfeed

• Designing Yelp or Nearby Friends

• Designing Uber backend

• Design Ticketmaster

• Design a system for last-mile delivery.

• Design a voice-driven system like Amazon Alexa.

• Design Alexa enabled treadmill.

Alternatively

There are also algorithm-type questions.

• Design a playlist based on one song.

• Recommendation engine showing most recent first vs. most relevant first.

• What is the accuracy required on a security camera before you can start using it to let people in.