LinkedIn.
The professional network, its feed, messaging, jobs marketplace and Kafka-based data infrastructure.
its questions lean on
- concurrency and schedulers
- key-value storage
- trending and top-K
- metrics pipelines
- social graph
The rounds, as candidates describe them
- DSATwo DSA rounds of an hour each.source ↗
- HLDA one-hour high-level design round.source ↗
- ConcurrencyA one-hour round that asks for working, thread-safe code; the delayed scheduler is a standard question.source ↗
- Hiring managerPast projects, a deep dive on one of them, and behavioural questions.source ↗
Reported by candidates
From public interview write-ups; each links its source.- Design a Distributed Job SchedulerSystem designIP-17 · Design a Distributed Job Scheduler →W02 · DAY 05 · Distributed Cron & Job Scheduling →W05 · DAY 05 · Leader Election and Coordination →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SSE Bangalore, rejected (2025) ↗LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SDE Bangalore (2025) ↗
- Design a Delayed Task SchedulerLow-level designW02 · DAY 05 · Distributed Cron & Job Scheduling →W00 · PART 5 · Operating System Concepts for System Design →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SWE Bangalore, concurrency round, offer (2024) ↗LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn Bangalore [Infra], concurrency round (2022) ↗LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SWE Bangalore, offer (2022) ↗
- Design a Distributed Key-Value StoreSystem designIP-03 · Design a Distributed Key-Value Store →W01 · DAY 01 · Partitioning Deep-Dive →W01 · DAY 02 · Replication Trade-offs →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SWE Bangalore, KV store on an append-only file API (2024) ↗LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SWE Bangalore, key-value storage LLD (2022) ↗
- Design a Rate LimiterSystem designIP-02 · Design a Rate Limiter →W01 · DAY 03 · Rate Limiting at Scale →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn onsite interview (2022) ↗
- Design Top-K Trending ArticlesSystem designIP-16 · Design an Ad Click Aggregation System →W08 · DAY 02 · Streaming vs Batch Processing →IP-14 · Design a Real-Time Leaderboard →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn Systems Engineer Bangalore, last 5 min / 1 h / 24 h (2023) ↗LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn Senior SWE Bangalore, top third-party articles (2023) ↗
- Design a Distributed Message QueueSystem designIP-18 · Design a Distributed Message Queue →W03 · DAY 01 · Queue vs Stream →W02 · DAY 02 · Idempotency in Practice →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn Systems Engineer Bangalore, Kafka with at-least-once and exactly-once (2023) ↗
- Design a Metrics Monitoring and Alerting SystemSystem designIP-15 · Design a Metrics Monitoring and Alerting System →W10 · DAY 02 · Observability →W08 · DAY 03 · Data Modeling for Analytics →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SWE Bangalore, service metrics publishing (2022) ↗LeetCode Discuss · Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Walmart loops, SignalFx/Splunk-like system (2024) ↗
- Design a Calendar Invite ServiceSystem designIP-06 · Design a Notification System →IP-19 · Design a Hotel Reservation System →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn Software Engineer (2023) ↗LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn offer accepted, Google Calendar HLD (2022) ↗
- Design a Collaborative Coding Pad (CoderPad)System designSQ-20 · Google Docs Collaboration →SQ-15 · Figma Multiplayer Editing →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SDE Bangalore (2022) ↗
- Design People You May KnowSystem designW08 · DAY 02 · Streaming vs Batch Processing →W01 · DAY 01 · Partitioning Deep-Dive →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SDE Bangalore, offer (2021) ↗
- Design a Catalog Event Enrichment PipelineSystem designW08 · DAY 01 · Event Ingestion at Scale →W08 · DAY 02 · Streaming vs Batch Processing →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SSE Bangalore, rejected (2025) ↗
Likely, from what they build
Our pick, not a report: questions that fit LinkedIn's products.- Design a News FeedSystem designIP-07 · Design a News Feed →W04 · DAY 04 · Feed Caching →
- Design a Notification SystemSystem designIP-06 · Design a Notification System →W06 · DAY 01 · Notification Platform — Problem Understanding & High-Level Design →
- Design Typeahead Search (Autocomplete)System designIP-09 · Design Typeahead Search (Autocomplete) →W07 · DAY 04 · Advanced Search Features →
Study path
Every lesson the questions above point to, once, in order.
- 01IP-17Design a Distributed Job Scheduler
- 02W02 · DAY 05Distributed Cron & Job Scheduling
- 03W05 · DAY 05Leader Election and Coordination
- 04W00 · PART 5Operating System Concepts for System Design
- 05IP-03Design a Distributed Key-Value Store
- 06W01 · DAY 01Partitioning Deep-Dive
- 07W01 · DAY 02Replication Trade-offs
- 08IP-02Design a Rate Limiter
- 09W01 · DAY 03Rate Limiting at Scale
- 10IP-16Design an Ad Click Aggregation System
- 11W08 · DAY 02Streaming vs Batch Processing
- 12IP-14Design a Real-Time Leaderboard
- 13IP-18Design a Distributed Message Queue
- 14W03 · DAY 01Queue vs Stream
- 15W02 · DAY 02Idempotency in Practice
- 16IP-15Design a Metrics Monitoring and Alerting System
- 17W10 · DAY 02Observability
- 18W08 · DAY 03Data Modeling for Analytics
- 19IP-06Design a Notification System
- 20IP-19Design a Hotel Reservation System
- 21SQ-20Google Docs Collaboration
- 22SQ-15Figma Multiplayer Editing
- 23W08 · DAY 01Event Ingestion at Scale
- 24IP-07Design a News Feed
- 25W04 · DAY 04Feed Caching
- 26W06 · DAY 01Notification Platform — Problem Understanding & High-Level Design
- 27IP-09Design Typeahead Search (Autocomplete)
- 28W07 · DAY 04Advanced Search Features
Company names and logos are trademarks of their owners, shown only to identify each company. This course isn't affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.