System Design for ML Systems

Recommendations, ranking and search, fraud detection and online metrics, from the data to serving.

Free PDF · sent by email the day it’s ready

Who it’s for

For ML and data engineers facing the classic ML system design round, where the model is one part of a larger system.

The questions cover data, features, training, serving and measuring the result.

What it covers

  • Recommendations
  • Ranking and search
  • Fraud detection
  • Online metrics

What the guide will include

  • A framework for the round

    Requirements, architecture, tradeoffs, evaluation and failure modes, in the order you say them.

  • Worked designs

    Prompts worked end to end the way you would answer them at the whiteboard, with the diagram.

  • Tradeoffs to name

    The choices interviewers push on, and what each option costs in latency, money and risk.

  • Failure modes and evals

    How the system breaks in production, how you would notice, and what you would measure.

  • A PDF you can print

    Read it on your phone before the call, or print the sections you want to drill.

Planned contents

The guide isn’t out yet, so chapters and their order may still change.

  1. 1. How the design round runs
  2. 2. Recommendations
  3. 3. Ranking and search
  4. 4. Fraud detection
  5. 5. Online metrics
  6. 6. Practice prompts

Free PDF

Get the ML Systems PDF free

Recommendations, ranking, search and fraud detection, from data to serving.

ML Systems System Design: The PDF isn’t out yet. We’ll email it to you the day it is. No spam; unsubscribe with one click.

Questions about the guide

Is the PDF really free?

Yes. Leave your email and we send the PDF the day it is ready. No payment details, and every email has a one-click unsubscribe link.

Is it based on a specific company’s interviews?

No. It is written from the concepts the role or system depends on. We don’t name companies or claim to know what any one company asks.

When will it be ready?

It isn’t out yet. Leave your email and we send it the day it is; nothing else arrives before then.

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