Code Room
System designMediumsd-g173
Subject DashboardingLevel Mid–Senior~35 minCommon in Security · Distributed systems interviewsIndustries Technology, Software development

Question

Design the backend of an enterprise dashboarding platform used by 10,000 internal users across many teams. Dashboards query 8 different data sources (a TSDB, a logs store, a SQL warehouse, a tracing backend, etc.). Requirements: dashboards with template/variable dropdowns that cascade (pick region → filters the cluster dropdown → filters panels), per-team access control so users only see permitted dashboards and data, and rendering for scheduled email/PDF reports. Design the query abstraction, variable resolution, access control, and the rendering path.

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.