Choose an investing app you like and design a social layer for its users

Name the investing app you like best, whether you use it for stocks, crypto or mutual funds, and explain what makes it your favorite. Then design a social angle for that app: features that bring a social element into how its users invest. ### Clarifying Questions - May the app be the interviewer's own product, or should it be one from another company that you use? - What should the social angle achieve for the business: bringing in new investors through people they know, keeping current investors active, or helping users invest more consistently? - Should the design serve all three asset types from the start, or may it begin with one, such as mutual funds? - How much of their financial information should users be expected to share, and must the design stay within rules on who may give investment advice? ### Part 1 — Choose the app and explain why Name the app, the kind of investor it serves best, and what sets it apart for you. Judge it on criteria an investor would care about, and name at least one real weakness. ```hint Judge it as a product Explain the choice through the jobs the app does for a specific kind of investor, not through habit alone. A gap you notice here can set up the next part. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - The target investor and the main jobs the app does for them. - Explicit criteria applied to the app, such as asset coverage, cost, ease of use, trust and portfolio insight. - An honest weakness that a social feature could address. ### Part 2 — Design the social angle Design the social layer for the app you chose: which users it is for, which of their problems it solves, the features, what you would build first, and how you would know it works. ```hint Money is private People are wary of exposing amounts and holdings, and social tips can push others into risky bets. Decide what is shared, with whom and in what form before you choose features. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A chosen user segment and the specific problems a social element solves for them. - Two or three concrete feature ideas and a prioritized first version. - Success metrics with guardrails on risky trading, misinformation and privacy. ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal for the social angle tied to the app's business, stated before any features. - A segment choice justified by need and size. - Designs that respect privacy and investor protection, and that account for how stocks, crypto and mutual funds differ. - Risks with concrete mitigations. ### Follow-up Questions - A user's shared portfolio leads many followers to buy a small, thinly traded stock that then collapses. Which safeguards should have prevented this, and what do you do now? - How would the social features differ for long-term mutual fund investors and for frequent crypto traders? - Users of the social features retain better but also trade more often and earn lower returns. Do you keep the features?