Design Disappearing Direct Messages
Last updated: August 18, 2026
Quick Overview
The candidate is asked to design a system for disappearing direct messages, similar to features found in apps like Snapchat, where messages are automatically deleted after being read or after a certain time period.
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August 18, 20262
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The candidate is asked to design a system for disappearing direct messages, similar to features found in apps like Snapchat, where messages are automatically deleted after being read or after a certain time period.
This question is typically asked during the technical screen round to evaluate a candidate's system design skills. The interviewer is looking for the candidate's ability to think critically about the architecture of a messaging system, including considerations for security, user experience, and scalability. The question also assesses the candidate's understanding of trade-offs involved in implementing such a feature.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Identify key requirements for the disappearing messages feature.
- Outline a high-level architecture for the system.
- Discuss potential trade-offs and scaling considerations.
- Consider user experience and security implications.
- Provide a deep dive into specific components or technologies used.
Key Topics to Cover
How to Approach This
- Start by clarifying functional and non-functional requirements with the interviewer.
- Estimate the scale: QPS, storage, bandwidth. This drives your design decisions.
- Draw a high-level architecture first, then deep dive into 1-2 critical components.
- Discuss trade-offs explicitly (e.g., consistency vs availability, SQL vs NoSQL).
- Address failure scenarios, monitoring, and how the system handles 10x traffic spikes.
Possible Follow-up Questions
- How would you handle message delivery failures?
- What strategies would you use to ensure message security?
- How would you implement user notifications for disappearing messages?
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Practice System Design ProblemsSample Answer
Requirements
To design a disappearing direct messages system, we first need to establish the core requirements. Users should be able to send messages that automatically delete after being read or after a specified...
High-Level Design
The high-level architecture could consist of several components: a client application for sending and receiving messages, a backend server to handle message processing, and a database for temporary me...
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