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Overview

System design interviews evaluate your ability to design large-scale distributed systems. Unlike coding interviews that focus on algorithms and data structures, system design interviews test your architectural thinking, trade-off analysis, and ability to communicate complex technical decisions. How to access: Select Software Engineering as your interview domain when launching Interview Copilot. This domain is optimized for system design discussions alongside general software engineering topics.
System design interview overview

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What Makes System Design Different

System design interviews have distinct characteristics that set them apart from other technical interviews:
AspectCoding InterviewSystem Design Interview
FocusAlgorithm correctness and efficiencyArchitecture, scalability, and trade-offs
QuestionsSingle correct solutionMultiple valid approaches
EvaluationCode that passes test casesReasoning and design decisions
Time30-45 minutes per problem45-60 minutes of discussion
OutputWorking codeDiagrams, components, and explanations

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System Design Solver

While Interview Copilot generates responses based on detected questions in verbal conversation, System Design Solver is a secondary assistant that allows you to capture or send screenshots to solve system design problems on screen. How to access: System Design Solver is available as a tab within any active Software Engineering Copilot session

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1. Setup

Choose between browser or desktop experience: Browser version: Desktop version (Recommended):
  • Download and install the Desktop App
  • Greater flexibility - works with any application, not limited to Chrome browser
System design interview starter

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2. Screen Capture

Capture system design problems on your screen and send them directly to System Design Solver for an immediate solution. Browser version:
  • Navigate to the system design question page with full question visibility
  • Click the Verve AI Chrome extension to capture the question and get an instant solution
Desktop version:
  • Use screen capture hotkeys to capture and solve:
    • Cmd + Shift + S (Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + S (Windows) - Capture selected area
    • Cmd + Shift + C (Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + C (Windows) - Full screen capture
Queue Images: Hover over the chat box and click the settings icon to enable Queue Images. When enabled, screenshots captured via the Chrome extension or desktop app hotkeys add to a queue instead of auto-solving. Useful when you need multiple captures before triggering a single solve.

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3. Use Quick Actions

System design solver interface
Click quick action buttons above the chat box to refine your solution:
Clarify functional and non-functional requirements for the system
Suggest high-level architecture and component design
Propose database schema and data relationships
Provide strategies for horizontal and vertical scaling
Design API endpoints and service interfaces
Analyze pros and cons of different design decisions

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4. Share Context

Hover over the chat box and click the settings icon to toggle Share Context. When enabled, Interview Copilot considers your System Design Solver interactions as reference when generating spoken support. Turn off if you don’t want Interview Copilot to elaborate on the content.

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Split Screen Mode

View Interview Copilot and System Design Solver side-by-side instead of switching between tabs. This lets you reference copilot suggestions while working on system design problems simultaneously. Hotkey: Cmd + / (Mac) or Ctrl + / (Windows) Learn more about split screen mode.

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Common System Design Topics

Key concepts: hashing, database design, redirect handling, analytics tracking
Key concepts: fan-out strategies, caching, real-time updates, ranking algorithms
Key concepts: WebSockets, message persistence, presence detection, group messaging
Key concepts: token bucket, sliding window, distributed rate limiting
Key concepts: cache eviction policies, consistent hashing, cache invalidation
Key concepts: trie data structure, ranking, prefix matching, real-time updates
For system design interviews, choose models optimized for deep reasoning and architectural thinking. See Choose the Right AI Model for detailed recommendations. Top picks for system design:
  • Claude 4.5 Sonnet - Excellent for trade-off analysis and architectural thinking
  • Grok 4 Reasoning - Advanced reasoning for scalability discussions
  • DeepSeek R1 - Strong at breaking down complex systems