Design IDE Sandbox and Payments

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Quick Overview

This question evaluates system design competencies such as distributed systems architecture, scalability, isolation and security, API and state-machine design, storage and synchronization, resiliency, observability, and compliance applied to two domains: a cloud IDE sandbox and a payment processing backend, with domain: System Design.

Design IDE Sandbox and Payments

Company: OpenAI

Role: Software Engineer

Category: System Design

Difficulty: hard

Interview Round: Onsite

You are asked to discuss two system design prompts. For each one, define the users, functional requirements, non-functional requirements, APIs, core workflow, component responsibilities, data model, failure handling, security concerns, and scalability trade-offs. ### Prompt 1: Design a cloud IDE sandbox Design a cloud-based IDE that lets users edit code in a browser and run arbitrary user programs safely in isolated sandboxes. The interviewer is especially interested in the complete workflow and what happens inside the VM or container when user code is executed. Cover at least: - How users create or resume a workspace. - How source files are stored and synchronized. - How code execution requests are scheduled. - How sandbox isolation is enforced. - How stdout, stderr, exit codes, logs, and artifacts are returned to the browser. - How timeouts, CPU limits, memory limits, network restrictions, and malicious code are handled. - How the system scales to many concurrent workspaces. ### Prompt 2: Design a payment processing system Design a backend payment platform that allows a merchant application to charge customers through external payment providers. Cover at least: - Payment creation and confirmation workflow. - Clear responsibilities for each component. - API design for merchants or internal services. - Payment state machine. - Idempotency and duplicate request handling. - Webhook handling from payment providers. - Ledger, reconciliation, refunds, retries, and failure recovery. - Security, compliance, observability, and reliability requirements.

Overview: This question evaluates system design competencies such as distributed systems architecture, scalability, isolation and security, API and state-machine design, storage and synchronization, resiliency, observability, and compliance applied to two domains: a cloud IDE sandbox and a payment processing backend, with domain: System Design.

Read the full OpenAI Software Engineer interview experience this question came from

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OpenAI
Apr 7, 2026
hardSoftware EngineerOnsiteSystem Design
12
0

You are asked to discuss two system design prompts. For each one, define the users, functional requirements, non-functional requirements, APIs, core workflow, component responsibilities, data model, failure handling, security concerns, and scalability trade-offs.

Prompt 1: Design a cloud IDE sandbox

Design a cloud-based IDE that lets users edit code in a browser and run arbitrary user programs safely in isolated sandboxes. The interviewer is especially interested in the complete workflow and what happens inside the VM or container when user code is executed.

Cover at least:

  • How users create or resume a workspace.
  • How source files are stored and synchronized.
  • How code execution requests are scheduled.
  • How sandbox isolation is enforced.
  • How stdout, stderr, exit codes, logs, and artifacts are returned to the browser.
  • How timeouts, CPU limits, memory limits, network restrictions, and malicious code are handled.
  • How the system scales to many concurrent workspaces.

Prompt 2: Design a payment processing system

Design a backend payment platform that allows a merchant application to charge customers through external payment providers.

Cover at least:

  • Payment creation and confirmation workflow.
  • Clear responsibilities for each component.
  • API design for merchants or internal services.
  • Payment state machine.
  • Idempotency and duplicate request handling.
  • Webhook handling from payment providers.
  • Ledger, reconciliation, refunds, retries, and failure recovery.
  • Security, compliance, observability, and reliability requirements.

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