System designHardsd-g607

Subject Media transcoding storage pipelineLevel Senior–Staff~45 minCommon in Storage & CDN · Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Technology

Question

Design a media-transcoding + storage pipeline for a VOD platform. Constraints: creators upload large master files (multi-GB, hours long), each must be transcoded into an adaptive-bitrate ladder (several resolutions/bitrates) and packaged (HLS/DASH segments), transcoding is CPU/GPU-heavy and bursty, a long video must not block others, and finished renditions are stored cheaply and served via CDN. Cover ingest, the transcode pipeline, and packaging/storage.

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.