Design Slack

1. Problem Statement

2. Architecture Discussion Map

Use this as one discussion aid, not a single correct answer. Your design should follow from the requirements, scale, and trade-offs you establish.

graph LR
    A["Design Slack"]
    A --> F1["Real-time Messaging WebSockets"]
    A --> F2["Channel Organization Workspaces/Channels/Threads"]
    A --> F3["Presence Online/Offline"]
    A --> F4["Search Async Indexing into a Search Cluster"]
    A --> F5["Scalability Gateway vs Logic layer"]

3. Key Focus Areas

• 1
  Real-time Messaging (WebSockets)
• 2
  Channel Organization (Workspaces/Channels/Threads)
• 3
  Presence (Online/Offline)
• 4
  Search (Async Indexing into a Search Cluster)
• 5
  Scalability (Gateway vs Logic layer)

4. What the Interviewer Looks For

The interviewer probes these areas, and the report grades the interview against them.

• Requirements and estimation
• Real-time delivery architecture
• Data model and partitioning
• Unread state, ephemeral events, and search
• Enterprise reliability and compliance