Last checked
System Design Interview Preparation With Mock Interviews
The short answer
Learn the building blocks, practise whole designs out loud, then take at least one mock interview with a person who scores you the way an interviewer does. We offer three ways to do the last step: a single 60-minute 1:1 mock interview with a written report within 48 hours, the live System Design Interview Bootcamp with two 1:1 mock interviews built in, or an AI tutor that runs practice interviews beside every lesson of our course. If you want many cheap practice rounds with an AI interviewer, Hello Interview and Educative sell those.
A 1:1 system design mock interview: 60 minutes on Google Meet with a real question at your level, spoken feedback, then a written report within 48 hours. ₹2,499 for one session in India. Elsewhere, Topmate shows the price for your country.
Written by Roni Das, who makes systemdesign.academy, so this is not an independent review. Every fact about another provider was read on that provider's own page on 4 November 2026, and each row links to its source. There are no affiliate links.
Ways to practise a system design interview
Our options come from their own pages. The others were read on their providers' pages on 4 November 2026.
| Option | Price (checked 4 November 2026) | What you get | Format | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:1 mock interview (ours) | ₹2,499 for one session in India. Elsewhere, Topmate shows the price for your country. | A real question at your level, follow-up questions like a real interviewer, spoken feedback, a written report within 48 hours | Live 60-minute video call with a person | /mock-interviews |
| System Design Interview Bootcamp (ours) | Fee: ₹15,000 in India or $300 elsewhere. | 14 Sundays of live classes from 8 November 2026, 14 designs, two 45-minute 1:1 mock interviews with written feedback within three days, the self-paced course included once the fee is paid | Live online, 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM IST, recorded | /live/system-design-interview-bootcamp |
| System Design Masterclass with the AI tutor (ours) | ₹1,111 once in India or $25 elsewhere. Lifetime access. | 770 lessons and 106 interview walkthroughs; the AI tutor beside every lesson can run a practice interview on what you just read | Self-paced written lessons, AI practice interviews | /system-design-course |
| Hello Interview Premium | US: $89 a year, $47 a month or $299 lifetime, discounted. India: ₹6,299 a year, ₹3,199 a month or ₹21,374 lifetime. | Practice interviews with an AI interviewer: 1 with a month, 2 with a year, 10 with lifetime, plus question breakdowns | AI mock interviews and written breakdowns | hellointerview.com/premium |
| Educative: Grokking Modern System Design Interview | US: $149 a year during a 50% off sale (list $298), inside a subscription. India: ₹6,737 a year during a 69% off sale. | 220 lessons, 20 case studies and 10 AI mock interviews | Interactive lessons with AI mock interviews | educative.io course page |
An AI mock interview is good for volume; a person is better at telling you where you lost points and why. Many candidates use both.
A preparation plan that works
- Weeks 1 to 3: the building blocks. Latency, load balancers, caches, databases, queues, replication and sharding. Start with the free Foundation lessons.
- Weeks 4 to 6: whole designs. Work through a URL shortener, a rate limiter, a news feed, chat, a ride-sharing app and a payment system, from requirements to trade-offs.
- Every week: say your answers out loud on a timer, and draw while you talk. Reading a design is not the same as giving one.
- Week 6 or 7: your first mock interview with a person. Fix the two or three things the report names.
- The week before: a second mock interview, then revise from your own notes and the estimation numbers.
What a mock interview with us looks like
- A real system design question at your level: mid, senior or staff.
- You lead the design on a shared whiteboard. I ask follow-up questions like a real interviewer.
- The last 10 to 15 minutes are spoken feedback.
- A written report within 48 hours, and a short list of what to study next.
- In the bootcamp: two 45-minute mock interviews, the first around week 8 and the second around week 12, each with written feedback within three days.
Good to know
- No free calls: every mock interview is a paid session.
- No job guarantee. The interview is still yours to pass.
Questions to practise with
The System Design interview pack (₹999 or $20) has 200 questions with worked answers and diagrams. The free interview walkthroughs on this site cover 106 systems, including all 14 designs the bootcamp covers live.
Free material to prepare with
Everything here is free to read. Use it for the first two steps of the plan.
Questions
How do I prepare for a system design interview?
In three steps: learn the building blocks, practise whole designs out loud on a timer, then take a mock interview with someone who scores you like an interviewer. Six to twelve weeks is a common plan for a working engineer.
Where can I get a system design mock interview?
With us, in two ways: a single 60-minute 1:1 mock with a written report within 48 hours, booked on Topmate, or the live System Design Interview Bootcamp, which includes two 1:1 mocks (fee ₹15,000 in India or $300 elsewhere). Hello Interview and Educative sell practice interviews with an AI interviewer.
How many mock interviews should I do?
At least two: one about halfway through your preparation to find the gaps, and one in the last week to check you fixed them.
Are AI mock interviews good enough?
They are good for practising many questions and saying answers out loud. A person is better at judging trade-offs, follow-up answers and how clearly you explain, which is what decides the level you are offered.
What happens in a system design mock interview?
You get a real question at your level, lead the design on a shared whiteboard, and answer follow-up questions. With us the last 10 to 15 minutes are spoken feedback, and a written report follows within 48 hours.
Who wrote this page?
Roni Das, who runs the mock interviews and the bootcamp, wrote it, so it is not independent. The Hello Interview and Educative facts were read on their own pages on 4 November 2026.
Other questions we answer the same way
- What is the best system design course in India?
- What is the best LLM inference engineering course?
- Which AI engineering bootcamp runs live online in India?
- What is the best agentic AI course with projects (RAG, agents, evals)?
- What is the best system design course in 2026?
- What is the best AI engineering course?
Interview soon?
Get all 200 questions in the System Design and Distributed Systems pack
Each question has why it is asked, a full answer, what the interviewer listens for, the follow-ups, the common mistakes and a diagram (268 diagrams in all). A PDF you keep, junior to staff level.
India: UPI, cards or netbanking through Razorpay. Elsewhere: card or PayPal. Download at once from My packs.