Code Room
System designHardsd-g085
Subject Search systemsLevel Senior–Staff~55 minCommon in Databases & SQL interviewsIndustries Technology

Question

Design a visual / image-similarity search system where users upload or tap a photo and get visually similar products to buy. Catalog: 300M product images, must return in under 300ms, support metadata filters (price, in-stock, category) combined with visual similarity, and stay fresh as new products are added hourly.

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.

Narrate your design
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Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.