Design a Slack-Like Messaging System
Company: Databricks
Role: Software Engineer
Category: System Design
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Onsite
Design a Slack-like team messaging system.
The system should allow users to:
1. Create workspaces.
2. Create public and private channels.
3. Send and receive messages in real time.
4. Send direct messages.
5. View message history.
6. Search messages.
7. Receive notifications for mentions and direct messages.
Discuss the high-level architecture, APIs, data model, real-time delivery mechanism, storage choices, consistency guarantees, scalability, fault tolerance, and trade-offs.
Quick Answer: This question evaluates skills in designing scalable, real-time messaging systems, including distributed systems thinking, API and data model design, real-time delivery mechanisms, search and notification handling, consistency guarantees, and fault tolerance.