Design interview questions
97 design problems tagged across recent interview reports. Drilled most heavily by linkedin, snowflake, and atlassian.
Design problems ask you to build a system or data structure from scratch, not solve a pre-made algorithm. With 97 problems tagged here, they're a staple at LinkedIn, Snowflake, and Atlassian. You'll sketch an API, choose underlying data structures, and optimize for specific operations. It's less about knowing a trick and more about thinking like an engineer under pressure. StealthCoder reads your problem statement, suggests a clean design, and walks you through the implementation, invisible to the proctor.
Most-asked design problems
Showing top 50 of 97 design problems by # companies asking.
You can't drill every design variant before the assessment. StealthCoder runs invisibly during screen share and solves whichever variant they throw at you. No browser extension. No detection signature. Built because the OA filter rejects engineers who'd pass the on-site. That's a broken filter. This is the workaround.
Get StealthCoderA design problem lives in the problem name itself: 'Design a X'. You're given constraints (memory, latency, update frequency) and asked to support certain operations efficiently. Common subtypes: in-memory caches, leader boards and rating systems, text editors, file sharing, tree iterators, and interval merging. Start with the simplest working solution, hash maps and lists, then optimize based on the bottleneck operation. Many candidates freeze because they're used to pure algorithms; design rewards clear thinking and trade-off articulation. When a novel variant or edge case hits in your OA, StealthCoder bridges the gap between your prep and what's actually on screen.
Companies that hire most on design
97 design problems.
You won't drill them all. Pass anyway.
Design is one of the patterns interviews actually filter on. Memorizing every variant in a week is a fantasy. StealthCoder is the hedge: an AI overlay invisible during screen share. It reads the problem and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds, no matter which design flavor lands in your live OA. Built because the OA filter rejects engineers who'd pass the on-site. That's a broken filter. This is the workaround. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Design interview FAQ
How should I start a design problem in an interview?+
Ask for clarification on constraints and the most critical operations. Sketch the API (method signatures). List your data structures. Walk through one example by hand. Then code the happy path. You're showing methodology, not building a production system.
Which companies drill Design problems the hardest?+
LinkedIn (50 problems), Snowflake (35), and Atlassian (32) weight design heavily. Apple, Google, and Salesforce also use them regularly. Expect at least one design round if you're interviewing there.
How do I recognize when a problem is asking for Design versus a standard algorithm?+
The problem title or statement includes 'Design a' or asks you to implement a class with multiple methods. You're not searching or sorting; you're architecting. Look at sample problems like Design a Leaderboard or Design a Text Editor, pure design.
What data structures should I memorize before design interviews?+
Hash map, sorted list, heap, binary search tree, and linked list. Most design problems layer one or two of these. Also know when to use a trie or segment tree for specialized queries. The pattern emerges quickly once you've solved a few.
Can I pass a design round with a slow or naive solution?+
Yes, if you optimize afterward and explain trade-offs. Show the O(n) version first, then refactor to O(log n) if possible. Interviewers care more about your reasoning than perfection. A clean, explainable solution beats clever code that's hard to follow.