Live stream ingest and distribution
Design a live-streaming ingest + distribution system (think a creator goes live and 2M viewers watch) with sub-5 s glass-to-glass latency for the low-latency tier, adaptive bitrate, and the ability to absorb a flash crowd when a stream goes viral. Decide the ingest protocol, the transcode/packaging stage, and how you fan a single source stream out to millions without melting the origin. Where's the hard part — ingest, transcode, or distribution?
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.