Design File Storage Infrastructure for global users
Last updated: June 14, 2026
Quick Overview
Design a geo-distributed file storage system that handles millions of requests. Discuss trade-offs in consistency, availability, and performance.
HashiCorp
June 14, 20261
4
2,579 solved
Design a geo-distributed file storage system that handles millions of requests. Discuss trade-offs in consistency, availability, and performance.
Software engineering fundamentals questions at HashiCorp test your understanding of core CS concepts and their practical application. This Technical Screen question evaluates how you apply engineering principles to build maintainable, scalable software.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Explain the concept clearly with a practical example
- Discuss when and why to apply this principle
- Identify common mistakes and anti-patterns
- Compare with alternative approaches
Key Topics to Cover
How to Approach This
- Apply SOLID principles. Single Responsibility makes code testable, Open/Closed makes it extensible.
- Choose data structures based on access patterns, not familiarity.
- Prefer immutable data and message passing over shared mutable state for concurrency.
- Design APIs with RESTful conventions, versioning, meaningful errors, and pagination from day one.
Possible Follow-up Questions
- How would you measure the performance of this component in production?
- How would you document this for other engineers?
- What testing strategy would you use for this component?
- How would you handle backward compatibility?
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Core Design Principles
For designing a geo-distributed file storage system for HashiCorp, the SOLID principles are crucial:
- Single Responsibility Principle (SRP): Each component should have one reason to change....
Architecture
For the architecture, I propose a microservices architecture with the following components:
- API Gateway: Acts as a single entry point for clients, routing requests to the appropriate servi...
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