Dog-Walking Marketplace & Architecture

Quick Overview

Practice a dog-walking marketplace and architecture case covering owner and walker journeys, MVP scope, trust and safety, payments, matching, real-time GPS tracking, backend services, marketplace liquidity, scaling, and unit economics.

Dog-Walking Marketplace & Architecture

Company: Meta

Role: Product Manager

Category: Product / Decision Making

Difficulty: medium

Interview Round: Onsite

##### Question Design a dog-walking marketplace app. Describe core user journeys, MVP feature set, high-level architecture (mobile clients, backend services, APIs), and key scoping or scaling considerations.

Quick Answer: Practice a dog-walking marketplace and architecture case covering owner and walker journeys, MVP scope, trust and safety, payments, matching, real-time GPS tracking, backend services, marketplace liquidity, scaling, and unit economics.

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Jul 4, 2025, 8:28 PM
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Design a Dog-Walking Marketplace App

Design a two-sided marketplace that connects dog owners who need walks with vetted dog walkers who provide them. The product should be reliable, safe, scalable, and capable of reaching marketplace liquidity in a constrained launch area.

Constraints & Assumptions

  • Start with scheduled walks in one dense city or region before expanding to on-demand dispatch.
  • Treat trust and safety as core product functionality, not only operations.
  • Support owner, walker, and platform-admin workflows.
  • Include a high-level architecture but keep implementation detail appropriate for a PM or product-system design interview.

Clarifying Questions to Ask Guidance

  • Are we designing for scheduled walks, on-demand walks, recurring walks, or all three?
  • What market should be used for the first launch and what density is required?
  • Are walkers contractors, employees, or partners, and what compliance constraints apply?
  • How much detail should I provide on marketplace strategy versus technical architecture?

Part 1 - Core User Journeys

Describe the primary journeys for dog owners, dog walkers, and operations or support teams.

What This Part Should Cover Guidance

  • Owner onboarding, pet profiles, booking, live walk tracking, payment, review, and support.
  • Walker onboarding, verification, availability, accepting jobs, executing walks, earnings, and safety.
  • Admin workflows for disputes, incidents, refunds, moderation, and marketplace health.

Part 2 - MVP Feature Set

Define the MVP for owner app, walker app, platform tools, trust and safety, payments, notifications, and analytics.

What This Part Should Cover Guidance

  • Features required to complete a safe scheduled walk end to end.
  • V1 exclusions such as group walks, complex surge pricing, advanced matching, or video.
  • Guardrails for identity, background checks, insurance, emergency support, and incident reporting.

Part 3 - High-Level Architecture

Describe mobile clients, backend services, APIs, data stores, real-time location, messaging, payments, and analytics.

What This Part Should Cover Guidance

  • Clear service boundaries or modular monolith domains.
  • Booking and walk state machines, idempotent actions, and location telemetry.
  • Privacy, payment security, background location constraints, and operational observability.

Part 4 - Scoping and Scaling Considerations

Explain how the product reaches liquidity while preserving safety and unit economics.

What This Part Should Cover Guidance

  • Geographic rollout, supply-demand balancing, recurring bookings, incentives, and fill-rate monitoring.
  • Trust and safety operations, support SLAs, fraud prevention, and walker quality.
  • Scaling constraints such as GPS reliability, mobile battery, payments compliance, and marketplace health.

What a Strong Answer Covers Guidance

  • Both marketplace strategy and product architecture.
  • Concrete owner and walker workflows with safety built in.
  • Metrics for liquidity, reliability, quality, retention, and unit economics.

Follow-up Questions Guidance

  • What is the first city or neighborhood launch criterion?
  • How would you handle a walker no-show?
  • What would you do if demand exceeds supply at lunch hours?
  • How would you detect GPS spoofing or fraudulent walks?
  • Which service would you split out first as the system scales?
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