Code Room
System designHardsd-g299
Subject Columnar storageLevel Senior–Staff~50 minCommon in Databases & SQL · Storage & CDN interviewsIndustries Technology, Software development

Question

Design how a columnar lakehouse table format (think Delta/Iceberg-class, immutable column files on object storage) supports row-level UPDATEs and DELETEs and GDPR 'delete this user' without rewriting whole multi-GB files on every change. Constraint: column files are immutable on the object store, queries scan them directly, and you need ACID semantics (a reader sees a consistent table version) plus reasonable read performance after many small deletes. Design the mutation mechanism, how reads reconcile it, and the compaction that keeps reads fast.

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.