Design a metrics platform without alerting

Q: Design a metrics platform without alerting

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design a scalable time-series metrics platform, covering data modeling for counters/gauges/histograms and labels, ingestion and storage strategies, query APIs, multi-tenancy, and operational trade-offs like reliability and cost.

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Question

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Design a metrics platform (like a simplified Prometheus/Datadog metrics product) that supports collecting, storing, querying, and visualizing metrics.

Scope

Ingest time-series metrics from many hosts/services.
Store metrics with tags/labels (dimensions).
Support queries for dashboards (instant queries and time-range queries).
No alerting/notification system is required.

Clarifications to cover

Data model (counters, gauges, histograms; labels/tags)
Ingestion model (push vs pull)
Storage (hot vs cold, retention, downsampling)
Query API and typical query patterns
Scale assumptions and bottlenecks (write QPS, cardinality)
Multi-tenancy, authn/authz, and isolation
Reliability and cost controls

Design a metrics platform without alerting

Quick Overview

Scope

Clarifications to cover

Solution

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