Design Order Processing Infrastructure for real-time analytics

Last updated: December 3, 2025

Quick Overview

Design a low-latency order processing system that handles millions of requests. Discuss trade-offs in consistency, availability, and performance.

OpenAI
Software Engineering Fundamentals
Software Engineer
OpenAI
December 3, 2025
Software Engineer
Onsite
Software Engineering Fundamentals
Easy

115

4

1,225 solved


Design a low-latency order processing system that handles millions of requests. Discuss trade-offs in consistency, availability, and performance.

OpenAI asks this during the Onsite to assess your depth in software engineering. They want to see understanding of design patterns, system architecture, and the trade-offs involved in different technical approaches.

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
Performance optimization
System observability and debugging
Concurrency and thread safety
Version control and branching strategies
Design patterns (Factory, Observer, Strategy, etc.)
How to Approach This
  1. Apply SOLID principles. Single Responsibility makes code testable, Open/Closed makes it extensible.
  2. Choose data structures based on access patterns, not familiarity.
  3. Prefer immutable data and message passing over shared mutable state for concurrency.
  4. Design APIs with RESTful conventions, versioning, meaningful errors, and pagination from day one.
Possible Follow-up Questions
  • How would you handle backward compatibility?
  • How would you measure the performance of this component in production?
  • What testing strategy would you use for this component?
  • How would you document this for other engineers?
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Sample Answer
Core Principles

Start by identifying which engineering principles are most relevant: **SOLID Principles**: Single Responsibility (one reason to change), Open/Closed ...

Design Approach

**API Design**: Define clear interfaces before implementation. Use RESTful conventions for HTTP APIs. Version your APIs from the start. Return meaning...


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