Design a real-time Inventory Management System
Last updated: July 15, 2025
Quick Overview
Design a real-time inventory management system handling millions of requests. Discuss consistency, availability, and performance trade-offs.
Walmart
System Design
Software Engineer
Walmart
July 15, 2025Software Engineer
Technical Screen
System Design
Medium
122
5
4,871 solved
Design a real-time inventory management system handling millions of requests. Discuss consistency, availability, and performance trade-offs.
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.
Sharpen Your Skills on Codemia
Practice similar problems with our interactive workspace, get AI feedback, and track your progress.
Practice System Design ProblemsSample Answer
Requirements
- Functional Requirements:
- Real-time tracking of inventory levels across all Walmart stores and warehouses.
- Ability to handle millions of concurrent requests for inventory checks, upda...
Capacity Estimation
Assuming Walmart has around 10,000 stores and warehouses globally:
- Each store updates inventory approximately 50 times a day (receiving shipments, selling products).
- Total updates per day = 10...
Submit Your Answer
Markdown supported