Design a high-scale URL shortener
Company: Microsoft
Role: Software Engineer
Category: System Design
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Onsite
Quick Answer: This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design scalable, high-throughput distributed systems with emphasis on URL mapping, storage and indexing, caching and geo-routing for low latency, capacity planning for heavy read/write ratios, and durability under write spikes and analytics requirements.