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Design fast search for AV raw logs

Last updated: Apr 20, 2026

Quick Overview

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design scalable logging and search infrastructure for autonomous-vehicle telemetry, testing skills in large-scale distributed systems, high-throughput data ingestion, time-range indexing and retrieval, and the trade-offs between relying on raw sensor signals versus derived perception outputs.

  • medium
  • Nuro
  • System Design
  • Software Engineer

Design fast search for AV raw logs

Company: Nuro

Role: Software Engineer

Category: System Design

Difficulty: medium

Interview Round: Technical Screen

Autonomous vehicles collect large volumes of **raw logs** (e.g., sensor streams, perception outputs, planning/debug signals). In these logs, there may be situations such as: - A **pedestrian** crossing - A **traffic sign** appearing (stop sign, speed limit sign, etc.) Design a system that allows engineers to **quickly find** log segments where these situations **might occur**. ### Requirements - Users should be able to query for scenarios like “pedestrian present”, “stop sign detected”, optionally with filters such as time range, vehicle/software version, geography, route, weather, etc. - Results should point to the **exact time ranges** (segments) in logs. - Logs are large-scale (many vehicles, continuous uploads). ### Clarify Explain what signals you would rely on (raw sensor vs derived perception outputs), how you index/search, and how the system scales.

Quick Answer: This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design scalable logging and search infrastructure for autonomous-vehicle telemetry, testing skills in large-scale distributed systems, high-throughput data ingestion, time-range indexing and retrieval, and the trade-offs between relying on raw sensor signals versus derived perception outputs.

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Autonomous vehicles collect large volumes of raw logs (e.g., sensor streams, perception outputs, planning/debug signals). In these logs, there may be situations such as:

  • A pedestrian crossing
  • A traffic sign appearing (stop sign, speed limit sign, etc.)

Design a system that allows engineers to quickly find log segments where these situations might occur.

Requirements

  • Users should be able to query for scenarios like “pedestrian present”, “stop sign detected”, optionally with filters such as time range, vehicle/software version, geography, route, weather, etc.
  • Results should point to the exact time ranges (segments) in logs.
  • Logs are large-scale (many vehicles, continuous uploads).

Clarify

Explain what signals you would rely on (raw sensor vs derived perception outputs), how you index/search, and how the system scales.

Solution

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