How do I approach System Design interview questions?

System Design questions require understanding of core concepts and practice. PracHub provides solutions with explanations to help you master system design interviews.

What difficulty level is this interview question?

This is a medium difficulty System Design question, commonly asked during Onsite rounds at Anthropic.

What role is this question designed for?

This question is commonly asked for Software Engineer candidates at Anthropic during technical interviews.

How to stream a large file to 1000 hosts fastest | Anthropic Interview Question

How to stream a large file to 1000 hosts fastest

Last updated: Apr 22, 2026

Quick Overview

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design scalable data distribution and bandwidth-optimized streaming strategies, testing competencies in distributed systems, network architecture, and performance trade-offs.

Anthropic

Mar 1, 2026, 12:00 AM

Software Engineer

Onsite

System Design

172

Problem

You need to distribute a very large file stored in cloud object storage to 1000 servers in a data center.

The WAN link from cloud storage → data center is bandwidth-limited (assume 1 Gb/s total into the data center).
Each server has a NIC bandwidth limit (assume 1 Gb/s per server).

Task

Design the fastest (lowest makespan) way to stream/deliver the file so that all 1000 servers obtain the full file.

Follow-up

How does your design change if some hosts have poor or unstable network (slow, lossy, frequently disconnecting)?

Solution

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