System designEasysd-g548

Subject SearchLevel Entry–Mid~25 minCommon in Databases & SQL interviewsIndustries Software development, Technology

Question

Design a search box for a small product catalog (about 5,000 items: name, category, short description). When a user types, you want to return matching products quickly, including partial matches like 'blu' matching 'blue shirt'. Reads are frequent (every keystroke can search), writes are rare (catalog updated a few times a week). Describe your data model and how you'd serve the queries.

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.

Learn the concepts

Narrate your design

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Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.