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Oracle System Design Interview Questions

The ultimate guide to the Oracle System Design Interview. Master distributed system fundamentals, and practice with real-world interview questions & mock interviews.
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Grounded in real engineering problems at Oracle, this course tackles System Design questions spanning cloud infrastructure, databases, and enterprise applications. With expert-led walkthroughs and practical challenges, you’ll explore design trade-offs that reflect the scale and complexity of Oracle’s ecosystem. Using the RESHADED framework, you’ll learn to approach each question methodically—defining requirements, addressing constraints, and designing modular systems that support data replication, transaction processing, and fault tolerance at scale. By the end, you'll be prepared to tackle systems aligned with Oracle’s engineering standards, whether you're targeting roles in cloud, database, or enterprise product teams.
Grounded in real engineering problems at Oracle, this course tackles System Design questions spanning cloud infrastructure, data...Show More

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

A structured approach to Oracle System Design Interviews focused on enterprise-scale architecture and distributed systems
Techniques for building robust data services, transactional systems, and backend APIs that mirror Oracle-scale demands
How to analyze requirements for systems that must prioritize consistency, durability, and data integrity
Insights into common System Design questions in Oracle interviews, with a focus on cloud infrastructure and data services
Strategies to approach design problems involving sharded databases, high-throughput APIs, and multi-tenant platforms
A practical, repeatable method for designing scalable enterprise systems across Oracle's product domains
A structured approach to Oracle System Design Interviews focused on enterprise-scale architecture and distributed systems

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Oracle System Design Interview

The ultimate guide to the Oracle System Design Interview.

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Introduction to Modern Oracle System Design Interview

Easy

Getting Ready

Easy

Key Concepts

Easy

Resources

Easy

The Do’s and Don’ts

Easy

Trade-offs

Easy

Communicating for Impact

Easy

Vantage Point

Easy

Managing Time

Easy

Tackle a Problem You’ve Never Seen Before

Easy

Let AI Evaluate your Interview Preparation

Easy

Consensus and Time in Distributed Systems

Learn about Consensus and Time in Distributed Systems

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Defining the Consensus Problem

Let's look into the consensus and its use-cases.

Easy

FLP Impossibility

Easy

The Paxos Algorithm

Easy

Intricacies of Paxos

Easy

Paxos in Real Life

Easy

Replicated State Machine via Consensus

Easy

Distributed Transactions via Consensus

Easy

An introduction to Raft

Easy

Communication among Raft Nodes

Easy

Raft's Implementation

Easy

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Easy

What is Different in a Distributed System?

Easy

A Practical Perspective

Easy

A Theoretical Perspective

Easy

Logical Clocks

Easy

Total and Partial Ordering

Easy

The Concept of Causality

Easy

Lamport Clocks

Easy

Vector Clocks

Easy

Version Vectors

Easy

Dotted Version Vectors

Easy

Distributed Snapshot Problem

Easy

Solving the Distributed Snapshot Problem

Easy

Physical and Logical Time

Easy

Quiz on Event Ordering

Easy

Back-of-the-envelope Calculations

Details on Back-of-the-envelope Calculations

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Put Back-of-the-envelope Numbers

Learn to use appropriate numbers in back-of-the-envelope calculations.

Easy

Examples of Resource Estimation

Easy

Building Blocks

Building Blocks for Modern System Design

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn how a system design is like using Lego pieces to make bigger, fascinating artifacts.

Easy

Databases

Databases in System Design

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Understand what a database is and its use cases in the system design.

Easy

Types of Databases

Easy

Data Replication

Easy

Data Partitioning

Easy

Trade-offs in Databases

Easy

Key-value Store

The basics of a key-value store.

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Let's understand the basics of designing a key-value store.

Easy

The Design

Easy

Scalability and Replication

Easy

Versioning Data and Achieving Configurability

Easy

Fault Tolerance and Failure Detection

Easy

The Content Delivery Network

Understand what problems a CDN solves.

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn about CDNs, and formalize the requirements for a CDN design.

Easy

The Design

Easy

Investigation of CDN: Part 1

Easy

Investigation of CDN: Part 2

Easy

Evaluation of CDN's Design

Easy

Quiz

Easy

The Distributed Cache

The distributed cache.

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn the basics of a distributed cache.

Easy

Background

Easy

High-level Design

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Memcached versus Redis

Easy

Distributed Cache System Mock Interview

Easy

Distributed Messaging Queue

Details on Distributed Messaging Queue

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn about the messaging queue, why we use it, and important use cases.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

Considerations

Easy

Design: Part 1

Easy

Design: Part 2

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

The Pub-sub

Designing a pub-sub system.

Question
Difficulty
Solution

What is a pub-sub system?

Get introduced to the basics of designing a pub-sub system.

Easy

Introduction

Easy

The Design

Easy

Rate Limiter

Design of Rate Limiter

Question
Difficulty
Solution

What is a rate limiter?

Let's understand the basic details to design a rate limiter.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

The Design

Easy

Algorithms

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Blob Store

Design of a Blob Store

Question
Difficulty
Solution

What is a blob store?

Get an introduction to the blob store and get ready to design it.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

The Design

Easy

Design Considerations

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Blob Store Mock Interview

Easy

Distributed Search

Design a Distributed Search

Question
Difficulty
Solution

What is a search system?

Learn about how a search system works and understand our high-level plan for designing a distributed search system.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

Indexing

Easy

The Design

Easy

Scaling Search and Indexing

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Concluding the Building Blocks Discussion

Let's wrap up on building blocks.

Question
Difficulty
Solution

AI Evaluation

Let AI evaluate building blocks of an E-Commerce platform.

Easy

Wrapping Up

Easy

The RESHADED Approach

Easy

YouTube

Design of YouTube

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Requirements

Understand the requirements and estimation for YouTube's design.

Easy

The Design

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

The Reality

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Youtube Mock Interview

Easy

Google Maps

Design of Google Maps

Question
Difficulty
Solution

What is Google Maps?

Understand the basics of a Google Maps system.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

The Design

Easy

The Challenges

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Uber

Design of Uber

Question
Difficulty
Solution

What is Uber?

Learn about the basics of designing an Uber service.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

High-level Design

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Payment Service and Fraud Detection

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Uber Mock Interview

Easy

Twitter

Design of Twitter

Question
Difficulty
Solution

What is Twitter?

Get an overview of Twitter and a brief description of what we’ll learn in this chapter.

Easy

High-level Design

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Client-side Load Balancer

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Instagram

Design of Instagram

Question
Difficulty
Solution

What is Instagram?

Get introduced to Instagram to kickstart its design.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

The Design

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Web Crawler

Design of Web Crawler

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn about the web crawler service.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

The Design

Easy

Design Improvements

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

WhatsApp

Design of WhatsApp

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn to design a WhatsApp messenger.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

High-level Design

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Typeahead Suggestion System

Design of Typeahead Suggestion System

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn about the typeahead suggestion system and understand the important details related to its design process.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

High-level Design

Easy

Data Structure for Storing Prefixes

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Design Google Docs

Design of Google Docs

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn what collaborative document editing is and what plan to follow for designing such a service.

Easy

Requirements

Easy

The Design

Easy

Concurrency in Collaborative Editing

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Google Docs Mock Interview

Easy

Google File System

Design of Google File System

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Understand the requirements that led to the development of GFS and learn about its architecture.

Easy

GFS File Operations

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Workflow of Create and Read File Operations

Easy

Workflow of Write Operations

Easy

Workflow of Delete and Snapshot Operations

Easy

Relaxed Data Consistency Model

Easy

Data Inconsistencies

Easy

Metadata Consistency Model

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Google Colossus File System

Design of Google Colossus File System

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Understand the importance of Colossus and its high-level design.

Easy

Design and Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Google BigTable

Design of Google BigTable

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn about Bigtable and the motivation behind its creation.

Easy

Detailed Design: Part I

Easy

Detailed Design: Part II

Easy

Design Refinements

Easy

Evaluation of Bigtable

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Google Bigtable Mock Interview

Easy

Google Megastore

Design of Google Megastore

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn what Megastore is and why it was created.

Easy

High-level Design

Easy

Data Model

Easy

Replication

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Many-Core Key-Value Store

Learn about problems with scaling the Memcached key-value store with a many-core processor.

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn about problems with scaling the Memcached key-value store with a many-core processor.

Easy

Estimations and Limitations

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Scaling Memcache

Design of Memcache

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn what is required to scale a key-value store like Memcache.

Easy

Single-server Level

Easy

Cluster Level

Easy

Regional Level

Easy

Cross-regional Level

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

DynamoDB

Design of DynamoDB

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Let's define the requirements for a key-value database.

Easy

High-level Design

Easy

No Fixed Schema

Easy

Partitioning and Replication

Easy

Adapting to Traffic Patterns

Easy

Durability and Correctness

Easy

High Availability

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Two-Phase Locking

Design of Two-Phase Locking

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Let's introduce the working principle of the two-phase locking mechanism for concurrency management.

Easy

Analysis and Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Google Chubby Locking Service

Design of Google Chubby Locking Service

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn about Google's Chubby locking service and its requirements.

Easy

Detailed Design: Part I

Easy

Detailed Design: Part II

Easy

Detailed Design: Part III

Easy

Detailed Design: Part IV

Easy

The Rationale

Easy

Evaluation of Chubby

Easy

Quiz

Easy

ZooKeeper

Design of ZooKeeper

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn why ZooKeeper was built and the needs it fulfills.

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Primitives

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Zookeeper Mock Interview

Easy

MapReduce

Design of MapReduce

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Let's introduce a MapReduce system for processing big data on multiple machines.

Easy

High-level Design

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Design Refinements: Part I

Easy

Design Refinements: Part II

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Conclusion

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Kafka

Design of Kafka

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Understand the need for an efficient distributed messaging system.

Easy

High-level Design

Easy

Detailed Design

Easy

Efficiency

Easy

Distributed Coordination

Easy

Delivery Guarantees

Easy

Evaluation

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Kafka Mock Interview

Easy

Two-Phase Commit (2PC)

Design of Two-Phase Commit (2PC)

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn about the two-phase commit and the motivation behind its creation.

Easy

The Working

Easy

The Failures

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Paxos

Design of Paxos

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Get introduced to Paxos, a popular algorithm for state machine replication.

Easy

Basic Paxos Protocol Design

Easy

Basic Paxos in Action

Easy

The Rationale

Easy

Multi-Paxos

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Raft

Design of Raft

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Get introduced to an easy to understand consensus algorithm—Raft.

Easy

Basics and High-Level Workflow

Easy

Leader Election Protocol

Easy

Log Replication Protocol

Easy

Safety, Fault-Tolerance, and Availability Protocols

Easy

Cluster Membership Changes

Easy

Log Compaction and Client Interaction

Easy

Quiz

Easy

Distributed System Failures

Design of Distributed System Failures

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Introduction

Learn about the failures in distributed systems and the importance of independent vantage points.

Easy

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus Outage

Easy

AWS Kinesis Outage

Easy

AWS Wide Spread Outage

Easy

Wrapping up

Just some final words.

Question
Difficulty
Solution

Conclusion

Let’s sum up.

Easy
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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the structure of the System Design interview at Oracle?

Oracle’s System Design interviews typically involve open-ended architectural problems focused on data-heavy, enterprise-grade systems. You’ll be expected to design services that meet high standards of availability, durability, and performance.

Are Oracle System Design interviews hard?

Yes. Oracle interviews are rigorous and emphasize deep architectural reasoning, particularly around databases, distributed systems, and high-reliability services.

How do I prepare for Oracle’s System Design interviews?

Focus on distributed systems, database architecture, and cloud infrastructure. Practice common design problems and review Oracle’s technical whitepapers or product documentation to understand their real-world implementations.

What kinds of problems are commonly asked in Oracle System Design Interview?

Candidates may be asked to design multi-tenant SaaS platforms, distributed transaction engines, metadata stores, or high-throughput query processors, problems aligned with Oracle’s core product lines.