Lead
Medium
Software EngineerDesign a hotel reservation system
System Design
0
0
May 26, 2026
Database Design Interview Questions
Database design questions test your ability to model data, choose storage systems, and optimize for access patterns.
Expect questions on SQL vs NoSQL trade-offs, schema normalization, indexing strategies, and consistency models.
Interviewers want to see that you can match data storage choices to actual system requirements.
740Questions
169Companies
Easy 32 • Medium 390 • Hard 318Difficulty mix
Common database design interview patterns
- SQL vs NoSQL selection criteria
- Schema normalization and denormalization trade-offs
- Index design for read-heavy vs write-heavy workloads
- CAP theorem and consistency models
- Database replication strategies
- Data modeling for time-series, graph, and document data
Database design interview questions
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Amazon
Medium
Software EngineerDesign a Scalable and Polite Web Crawler
System Design
1
0
May 29, 2026
Meta
Medium
Software EngineerDesign a Scalable Post, Feed, and Search Service
System Design
1
0
March 2, 2026
Soti
Medium
Software EngineerDesign an IP blacklist API
System Design
0
0
April 23, 2026
Serval
Medium
Software EngineerModel Flights, Passengers, Bookings, and Seat Holds
System Design
0
0
July 12, 2026
Illumio
Hard
Software EngineerDesign a Time-Series Database
System Design
0
0
July 9, 2026
Amazon
Medium
Software EngineerDesign a Multi-Provider Financial Dashboard
System Design
0
0
February 2, 2026
Jain Global
Medium
Data EngineerModel Effective-Dated Compliance Restrictions for Securities
System Design
0
0
July 26, 2026
Jain Global
Medium
Data EngineerDesign and Debug a Point-in-Time Backtest Data Pipeline
System Design
0
0
July 26, 2026
MathWorks
Medium
Software EngineerDesign a Scalable Product Authentication Platform
System Design
0
0
February 3, 2026
Amperity
Medium
Software EngineerDesign Data Aggregation, Query, and One-Time Secret Systems
System Design
0
0
April 7, 2026
Walmart Labs
Medium
Software EngineerDesign a Read- and Write-Heavy Product Catalog Service
System Design
0
0
July 28, 2026
Figma
Medium
Software EngineerDesign Permission-Aware Retrieval for Design Files
System Design
0
0
July 21, 2026
Millennium
Medium
Data ScientistDesign a Governed Agent for Portfolio Rebalancing
ML System Design
0
0
July 30, 2026
DoorDash
Medium
Software EngineerDesign a Food Review Platform
System Design
0
0
April 3, 2026
Opendoor
Medium
Backend EngineerDesign Map-Based Home Search
System Design
0
0
July 16, 2026
Expedia
Medium
Software EngineerConsolidate Three Partner APIs into a Query Service
System Design
0
0
July 16, 2026
Gusto
Medium
Software EngineerScope and Design a Restaurant Scheduling System
System Design
0
0
August 1, 2026
Moodys
Medium
Software EngineerDesign a Product Inventory and Pricing Service
System Design
0
0
July 25, 2026
Bilt
Medium
Software EngineerDesign a Configurable Reward Points Service
System Design
0
0
July 21, 2026
Common mistakes with database design
- Choosing a database without understanding access patterns
- Over-normalizing when denormalization improves read performance
- Adding too many indexes without considering write overhead
- Ignoring data growth and capacity planning
- Not discussing backup and disaster recovery
How database design questions are evaluated
Justify your database choice based on the specific workload requirements.
Show awareness of trade-offs between consistency, availability, and performance.
Discuss how the schema evolves as requirements change.