Design Asset Storage System
Company: Instacart
Role: Software Engineer
Category: System Design
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Technical Screen
Design a high-level storage system for digital assets. The system must store and serve multiple asset types, including text documents, images, and videos.
Focus on a high-level block diagram and the end-to-end flow. You do not need to provide detailed API definitions or a full database schema.
Your design should cover:
- How clients upload assets.
- Where raw assets are stored.
- How metadata is stored and queried.
- How images and videos may be processed after upload.
- How assets are served back to users efficiently.
- Which major components are needed and how they interact.
After presenting the diagram, choose three components and explain:
- What the component does.
- What technology or type of system you would use for it.
- Its limitations.
- Its pros and cons.
Quick Answer: This question evaluates proficiency in system design for scalable, durable asset storage and delivery, encompassing distributed storage, metadata modeling, media processing pipelines, and content delivery.