Track 5 · Design Interview Problems
Design Google Maps (Routing, ETA & Navigation)
Google Maps and MapMyIndia navigation. Vector tile pyramids, Contraction Hierarchies for sub-10ms routing across India, and live traffic telemetry.
Interview problem25 min read
On this page
- Problem framing
- Questions I ask before drawing anything
- Requirements
- Estimation
- API design
- Database schema
- Map tile rendering: The Web Mercator Quadtree
- Fast routing: Contraction Hierarchies (CH)
- Evolutionary architecture: v1 MVP to v2 Distributed scale
- Real-time traffic ingestion and edge speed updates
- Edge cases and failure recovery
- Cross-questions interviewers will ask
- Interview Rubric: Mid-Level vs Senior / Staff