Object-oriented design interview questionMedium

Design a Restaurant Management System

Design a restaurant domain model covering tables and capacity, reservations for time slots, seated parties, a menu, orders with priced line items, kitchen status, and bills with payments, keeping booking and order/kitchen state transitions correct.

1. Problem Statement

Design a restaurant management system: guests reserve a table for a time slot, are seated as a party, order items from the menu, the kitchen prepares them, and the party pays a bill that may be split. Start by clarifying scope and the core objects.

2. Live Coding Format

Work in the provided coding workspace while explaining your decisions to the live interviewer. Validation may use inline tests, examples, comments, or a verbal walkthrough.

3. Key Focus Areas

  • 1
    Table capacity and reservation overlap
  • 2
    Order items with snapshotted prices
  • 3
    Order and kitchen status transitions
  • 4
    Bill computation and optional split strategy

4. What Strong Candidates Should Demonstrate

  • Model tables, reservations, parties, menu, orders, and bills with clear ownership.
  • Enforce table booking overlap and capacity constraints.
  • Snapshot menu prices on order items so bills are stable against price edits.
  • Model order and kitchen status transitions and an optional bill-split strategy.

Want interactive feedback?

Practice this problem in the live coding workspace while the interviewer probes your clarification, implementation, trade-offs, and validation.

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Core Concepts

Hidden because they name the technique, which a real interviewer would not tell you.

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Object-Oriented DesignDomain ModelingState MachineStrategy Pattern

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