Design an Instagram-like auction platform

Q: Design an Instagram-like auction platform

This is a System Design interview question from Meta for Software Engineer roles. View the full question and solution on PracHub.

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Question

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Design an Instagram-like platform that supports auction posts.

Users can:

Create an auction post with photos/video, description, category/tags.
Set auction rules: start time, end time, starting price, minimum increment, optional reserve price, optional “buy now”.
Place bids during the auction.
See real-time bid updates on the auction page.
Follow creators, like/comment/share, and view a feed.
Receive notifications (outbid, auction ending soon, won/lost, payment/shipping updates).

Design for a large scale (tens of millions of DAU). Focus especially on:

Correctness and fairness of bidding
Handling high bid volume on popular auctions
Real-time updates and notifications
Data model and consistency choices

State assumptions, APIs, storage, key services, and the main read/write flows.

Design an Instagram-like auction platform

Solution

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