Account-takeover and collusion detection
Design a system to detect account-takeover and collusion fraud rings on a P2P payments app (40M users). Signals include device fingerprints shared across accounts, login from new geos, sudden P2P cash-out patterns, and clusters of accounts that funnel money to one mule. Detection is partly near-real-time (block a suspicious cash-out) and partly batch (discover rings overnight). Describe the architecture, how you model the account/device/transaction graph, and the latency/accuracy trade-offs.
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.
Clarify5:30 left
Estimate5:30 planned
Design16:30 planned
Deep dive13:30 planned
Failure9:00 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.