Track 5 · Design Interview Problems
Design Google Search Autocomplete (Typeahead Suggestion)
Real-time search suggestions under 30 milliseconds. Prefix trees, pre-computed Top-K nodes, offline frequency aggregation, and edge debouncing.
Interview problem25 min read
On this page
- Problem framing
- Questions I ask before drawing anything
- Requirements
- Estimation
- API design
- Data modeling and storage
- The core data structure: Trie with pre-computed Top-K
- Evolutionary architecture: v1 MVP to v2 Distributed scale
- System architecture deep dives
- Client-side and CDN optimizations
- Edge cases and failure recovery
- Cross-questions interviewers will ask
- Interview Rubric: Mid-Level vs Senior / Staff