Start with the idea
Ask about scale, latency, durability, consistency, trust boundaries, and expected failure. Good clarifying questions shrink the design space and reveal which guarantee the interviewer actually wants explored.
A broad design prompt hides choices that determine the architecture. Ask who the users are, what action they need, expected traffic, size of stored data, latency targets, and what must survive a failure. Then ask about consistency, security boundaries, retention, and existing systems. Prioritize questions that change the design. If the interviewer cannot give numbers, state reasonable assumptions and proceed; endless clarification can become a way to avoid making a design decision.
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