Design a multi-level parking system

Q: Design a multi-level parking system

This question evaluates system design skills including hierarchical data modeling, API design, stateful resource allocation, and concurrency control for a backend that manages multi-level parking resources.

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Question

System Design: Multi‑Level Parking System

Context

Design the backend for a multi‑level parking facility. The system must track floors, rows, parking spots, and vehicle types. Some vehicles require multiple adjacent spots. The service should allocate and release spots on vehicle entry/exit and support queries for availability by vehicle/spot type and by floor.

Assume:

Vehicles: motorcycle, car, van/SUV, bus/truck (some may require k adjacent standard spots).
Spots: motorcycle, compact, regular, large, EV (flag for charging capability), each on a specific floor and row, with a sequential index for adjacency.
Adjacency means contiguous indexes within the same row.

Requirements

Define core data models (entities, relationships, key fields).
Define APIs for:
- Vehicle entry (allocate spot(s) and issue a ticket/allocation).
- Vehicle exit (release spot(s)).
- Queries: available spots by type and by floor; availability for a given vehicle type.
Address allocation for vehicles that need multiple adjacent spots.
Note key constraints, concurrency handling, and performance considerations.

Design a multi-level parking system

System Design: Multi‑Level Parking System

Context

Requirements

Solution

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Design a multi-level parking system

Overview

System Design: Multi‑Level Parking System

Context

Requirements

Solution

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