Paid media CDN authorization
Design secure content delivery for paid media (e.g., premium audio/video or paid downloads) over a CDN where files are cached at the edge for performance, but access must be restricted to entitled, paying users and must respect geo/license restrictions. The challenge: the edge serves cached bytes without calling your origin, so how do you enforce per-user authorization on a cached object without killing cache efficiency?
What a strong answer looks like
Clarify scale and constraints first. Propose a clean component breakdown, then go deep on the hard parts (data model, bottlenecks, consistency, failure modes) and name the trade-offs you are making.
Clarify4:00 left
Estimate4:00 planned
Design11:30 planned
Deep dive9:30 planned
Failure6:00 planned
Which questions mattered is sealed until you submit. Telling you now would just be handing over the edge cases.
Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.