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Prep/Companies/LinkedIn

Social · Sunnyvale, California

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 design
IP-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 design
W02 · 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 design
IP-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 design
IP-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 design
IP-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 design
IP-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 design
IP-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 design
IP-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 design
SQ-20 · Google Docs Collaboration →SQ-15 · Figma Multiplayer Editing →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · LinkedIn SDE Bangalore (2022) ↗
Design People You May KnowSystem design
W08 · 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 design
W08 · 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 design
IP-07 · Design a News Feed →W04 · DAY 04 · Feed Caching →
Design a Notification SystemSystem design
IP-06 · Design a Notification System →W06 · DAY 01 · Designing a Real-Time Notification Platform →
Design Typeahead Search (Autocomplete)System design
IP-09 · Design Typeahead Search (Autocomplete) →W07 · DAY 04 · Typeahead at Scale: Autocomplete, Spelling and Facets →

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 01Designing a Real-Time Notification Platform
27IP-09Design Typeahead Search (Autocomplete)
28W07 · DAY 04Typeahead at Scale: Autocomplete, Spelling and Facets

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