LinkedIn · Software engineer · Experienced hires (IC3 Senior and up); often two rounds at staff
System Design
Whiteboard/virtual-canvas discussion, product-centric and anchored on real LinkedIn features
What they actually ask
The question shapes this round uses. Larpy does not read these out. It builds each one from your own resume, because the generic version is the one you have already rehearsed.
- “Design LinkedIn's home feed: which posts, jobs, and articles to show and in what order (discuss fan-out pull vs. push/hybrid and ranking).”
- “Design a notification system that is timely and de-duplicated at scale.”
- “Design 'People You May Know' / connection recommendations.”
- “Design a job recommendation or job-search system.”
- “Design a real-time 'who viewed your profile' counter and analytics pipeline.”
- “Design a messaging/chat system.”
- “Design a rate limiter or a distributed key-value cache.”
What this round is judged on
- Requirement gathering · clarifies scope and states assumptions before designing
- Architecture & data modeling · coherent high-level design and sound schemas
- Scalability · quantifies scale and reasons about latency vs. consistency
- Trade-off reasoning · names pull vs. push/fan-out, caching, eventual consistency
- Product sense · understands what the feature is for and who uses it
Where this round sits
LinkedIn’s published process. Lime marks the stage this round runs.
- 01Application
- 02Conversation
- 03Interviewthis round
- 04Decision
What happens in each stage›
- Application
- Recruiting reviews applications against the basic and preferred qualifications on the job description. Not simulated as a live round.
- Conversation
- A recruiter schedules a call to learn about your background and ask basic questions; often followed by a hiring-manager video call exploring experience, skills, and technical expertise. Simulated as the Recruiter Screen.
- Interview
- You meet several team members, and per LinkedIn 'each interview will focus on a different skill area.' For SWE this reliably includes coding rounds, system design (experienced hires), and a behavioral/values round. Simulated as the coding, system-design, and behavioral rounds.
- Decision
- The hiring team assesses fit and potential; LinkedIn notes this stage 'may need several weeks.' Includes team-match. Not simulated.
Sources
Built from what LinkedIn publishes about its own process and from real interview data. No leaked question lists. The questions you get are generated against your own resume, so they are not from anyone else's interview.
The four official stages (Application, Conversation, Interview, Decision), the 'each interview will focus on a different skill area' language, and the 'fair, inclusive and transparent process for every candidate' priority.
The official engineer behavioral/technical sample questions, each mapped to a competency and what-to-assess (the closest thing to a published rubric).
The IC ladder used for level framing: IC1 Apprentice, IC2 Software Engineer, IC3 Senior, IC4 Staff and above; new grads typically enter at IC2.
Commonly-asked coding patterns and the algorithm practice set used to inform the coding-round problem selection.
Sources last checked . Hiring loops change, so this date is the honest limit on everything above.