Mock system design interview at Notion
A live 45-minute round on a question reported in Notion interviews, run by an AI interviewer that asks one thing at a time, probes what you say, looks at your whiteboard, and weighs what that round is reported to weigh. It ends with a debrief: a score, what was strong, what was missing.
Design Google Docs
Real-time collaborative editing: many cursors in one document, every keystroke converging to the same text, offline edits merged on reconnect.
You will not see the requirements, the numbers or the design before you start. That is the point.
What the Notion round is reported to look like
60 minutes, about 45 of them on one open-ended problem given as a rough spec, worked in a document editor of your choice with diagrams optional. Reported prompts include real-time editing of one document, a notification service and a data model for a set of requirements.
What it weighs
- Clarifying questions up front, which Notion encourages, to firm up the spec
- A data model and storage choice justified by the queries it has to serve
- On collaboration prompts: how concurrent edits to one document converge
- Design knowledge rather than diagrams: Notion says familiarity with drawing tools is not what it assesses
The common mistake
Treating the rough spec as complete. Notion encourages clarifying questions and candidates report the round leaning on data modelling, so pin down the requirements and justify the data model by the queries it serves before drawing services.
From public interview guides and candidate reports, and Notion’s own interview guidance where it publishes any. Not endorsed by Notion. The interviewer is an AI running in that style; it is practice, not a prediction.
Start the round
The interviewer’s opening question is free. Answering it is part of Pro. See an example round and its debrief →
The 3 questions this round draws from
Each is reported in Notion interviews. Pick one to sit, or read its reference design and walk through a strong answer first.
- Design Google DocsReal-time collaborative editing: many cursors in one document, every keystroke converging to the same text, offline edits merged on reconnect.drawn
- Design Figma500 k design files open at once, some with 200 people: objects converge live, cursors stream, and 300 MB files open in seconds.
- Design a RAG SystemAn assistant that answers employees’ questions from their company’s documents, with citations, only from what each user may open, minutes after edits.
Other companies: Anthropic · Google · Meta · Amazon · OpenAI · Microsoft · Uber · DoorDash