Design a Distributed Job Scheduler (Exactly-Once)

Also reported as Distributed CRON Job Scheduler

System DesignAmazonLast reported September 2026Low Frequency

Reported: 2× across candidate reports
First seen: July 2026
Last reported: September 2026
Reported outcome: unknown

Problem Overview

Design a distributed, cron-style job scheduler like Airflow. What the reports say: - In an SDE-2 loop, this was the bar raiser's round, labelled 'machine coding': design an Airflow-like distributed cron job scheduler. The report does not say whether code was written. - In a system design round, the scheduler…

2 candidate-reported follow-ups — the exact probes interviewers asked, with the trigger for each
The rest of the problem statement — full requirements, constraints, and edge cases
Approach and trade-offs — what passing candidates did, and the mistakes that sink people

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Verified Source

Every question is reconstructed from multiple independent candidate reports. Verbatim follow-ups, not invented ones.

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Interviewer Follow-ups

The exact follow-ups reported by candidates, with the trigger that prompts each one — plus the mistakes that sink people.