Semantic search with filters
Design search for a real-estate listings site where users issue natural-language queries ('quiet 3-bed near good schools under 600k') that must combine semantic similarity with hard structured filters (price ≤ 600k, beds = 3, status = active) and ranking by recency and proximity. There are ~5M active listings, constantly changing (sold, price-dropped, new). Design a hybrid retrieval system that respects the hard filters exactly while still using semantic matching, and explain why pure vector search alone fails here.
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.
Clarify4:30 left
Estimate4:30 planned
Design13:30 planned
Deep dive10:30 planned
Failure7:00 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.