When preparing for a system design interview at Coupang, candidates should be ready to discuss designing scalable, reliable, and efficient systems with a focus on e-commerce, logistics, and real-time data processing. Here are some of the top system design interview questions commonly asked at Coupang:

Design an E-commerce Platform Like Coupang

Candidates are expected to discuss the architecture required to support various functionalities such as product listings, search, shopping carts, order processing, payment gateways, and user management. Key points include handling high volumes of transactions, ensuring data consistency, and integrating with external services.

Design a Real-Time Inventory Management System

This question tests the ability to design a system that can track inventory levels in real-time across multiple warehouses and stores. Important considerations include data synchronization, handling concurrent updates, ensuring data accuracy, and providing a seamless user experience.

Design a Dynamic Pricing System

Candidates need to explain how they would build a system that adjusts product prices dynamically based on demand, competition, and other factors. Key aspects include real-time data processing, machine learning models for price prediction, and ensuring fairness and transparency.

Design a Scalable Notification System

This question involves creating a system that can send notifications to users about order status, promotions, and other updates in real-time. Important considerations include managing user preferences, ensuring low latency, reliable delivery, and handling high volumes of notifications.

Design a Recommendation System for Products

Candidates should discuss how they would design a system that provides personalized product recommendations to users based on their browsing history, purchase behavior, and preferences. Key points include data collection, machine learning models, real-time processing, and scalability.

Design a Route Optimization System for Delivery

This question tests the ability to design a system that optimizes delivery routes for drivers, taking into account real-time traffic conditions, delivery priorities, and efficiency. Important considerations include real-time data processing, route planning algorithms, and scalability.

Design a Search System for Products

Candidates need to design a system that allows users to search for products efficiently within the e-commerce platform. Key aspects include indexing, query optimization, handling large volumes of data, and providing relevant search results.

Design a Scalable Payment Processing System

This question involves creating a system that handles secure and scalable payment processing for transactions between customers and merchants. Important considerations include handling transactions, ensuring security and fraud detection, managing payment gateways, and providing a seamless user experience.

Design a Real-Time Analytics Platform

Candidates should discuss how they would design a system that collects, processes, and analyzes data in real-time for business intelligence purposes, such as understanding user behavior and optimizing operations. Key points include data ingestion, stream processing, scalability, and providing real-time insights.

Design a Customer Support System

This question tests the ability to design a system that provides efficient customer support, including handling inquiries, tracking issues, and providing real-time assistance. Important considerations include data integration, real-time processing, user interface design, and ensuring high availability.

These questions reflect Coupang’s emphasis on creating a seamless and efficient user experience, as well as their need for scalable and reliable systems to support their e-commerce and logistics operations. Preparing for these questions involves understanding the technical aspects of system design, scalability challenges, and creating robust, user-centric solutions that can handle large-scale operations efficiently.