System Design: YouTube / Video Publishing & Streaming

System DesignOpenAILast reported May 2026Medium Frequency
Reported
4× across candidate reports
First seen
February 2026
Last reported
May 2026
Reported outcome
mixed

Problem Overview

Design a video publishing and streaming platform similar to YouTube. The system should support video upload, storage, transcoding, and delivery at scale with many concurrent users. Variants include framing as a 'storage system for video publishing' with explicit…

  • 3 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.
Codex Fact-Checked
Technical claims, formulas, and scale numbers are reviewed against primary sources.
Interviewer Follow-ups
The exact follow-ups reported by candidates, with the trigger that prompts each one — plus the mistakes that sink people.
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