System Design

Requirements, Metrics, and Scope in ML System Design

Start ML system design interviews with product goals, users, constraints, labels, metrics, baselines, and failure modes.

Recommended on day 5890 minutesIntermediate

Learning objectives

  • Clarify requirements before proposing models
  • Separate product, model, system, and guardrail metrics
  • Define assumptions and non-goals early

Interview prompts

  • What do you ask in the first five minutes of an ML system design prompt?
  • How do you choose product metrics versus model metrics?