About DesignRounds

DesignRounds is a system design interview practice platform. You pick a realistic design problem, build your architecture on a canvas, explain your decisions to an AI interviewer, and get a rubric-based review of your design. It runs in the browser at designrounds.in.

Who it's for

Software engineers preparing for system design interviews, from first system design rounds to senior and staff loops. Practice rounds cover every discipline: Backend and full-stack, Data engineering, Machine learning & AI, Platform & infrastructure, Distributed systems and Frontend & mobile.

How it works

1. Pick a design round. Each round has a brief, requirements, a difficulty level and a target time of 30 to 55 minutes.
2. Design on the canvas. A full library of components, labeled synchronous and asynchronous connections, zones, and a "why this choice?" note on every component. Work autosaves.
3. Defend your choices. On Plus, a live AI interviewer asks follow-up questions about significant decisions, like a real interviewer.
4. Get reviewed. An AI review scores six weighted dimensions: requirements and scope, high-level architecture, data model and storage, scale and performance, reliability and security, and trade-offs and reasoning. The overall score out of 100 is computed the same way on every plan.

Pricing

• Free: free questions in every discipline, the full canvas, an AI review of your design with scores on every dimension, and your first round with the live AI interviewer. No credit card.
• Plus (coming soon): every question, the live AI interviewer on every round, feedback on how you communicate, more reviews per round, and full coaching on each decision. Pricing will be announced at launch.

How it compares

Books, videos and written guides teach the building blocks and show finished designs. Mock interviews with people give the most realistic feedback but cost time or money and need scheduling. DesignRounds is for the step in between: doing many full, timed rounds yourself and getting feedback on each one.

• Every role, not just backend. Separate rounds and roadmaps for data engineering, machine learning, platform and infrastructure, distributed systems, and frontend and mobile interviews.
• Reasoning is graded. The review reads the "why" behind each component, not just which boxes are on the canvas.
• Its limits. An AI review is not a senior engineer from your target company and can miss nuance. Most candidates still do one or two mock interviews with a person before the real thing.

For a side-by-side look at books, guides, AI practice platforms and mock interview services, see the best system design interview resources.

Your data

Designs are private to your account. To generate interviewer replies and reviews, your design and notes are sent to an AI provider. You can delete any round, or your whole account, at any time from your profile.