# Backend Interview Preparation: System Design Practice with YoloCorp

## Beyond Whiteboard Exercises

You've practiced algorithms on LeetCode. But backend interviews increasingly focus on **system design** - and that's hard to practice on a whiteboard.

YoloCorp gives you hands-on system design practice by making you build actual systems.

## What Backend Interviews Test

### Algorithm Round (LeetCode covers this)
- Data structures and algorithms
- Time/space complexity
- Problem-solving speed

### System Design Round (YoloCorp covers this)
- Architecture decisions
- Database schema design
- API contract design
- Scalability considerations
- Trade-off analysis
- Production constraints

## How YoloCorp Prepares You

### Real Architecture Decisions

Every YoloCorp project forces you to make real system design choices:

- **Storage**: SQL vs NoSQL? Which database? Schema design?
- **API Design**: REST, GraphQL, or RPC? How to version?
- **Services**: Monolith or microservices? Message queues?
- **Data Flow**: How does data move through your system?

These are exactly the questions asked in system design interviews.

### Trade-off Practice

Interviewers want to see you evaluate trade-offs:

- **Consistency vs Availability**: How do you handle conflicts?
- **Normalization vs Denormalization**: Query speed vs data integrity?
- **Synchronous vs Asynchronous**: Immediate response vs eventual consistency?

YoloCorp's evolving requirements force these trade-off decisions episode by episode.

### Articulating Your Decisions

In interviews, you must explain **why** you chose an approach.

YoloCorp gives you practice:
- Designing schemas that can evolve
- Choosing API patterns that scale
- Building systems that handle change
- Justifying architectural decisions

### Evolving Requirements

The best system design interviews add new requirements mid-conversation:

> "Now what if we need to support 1M users?"
> "How would you add real-time notifications?"

YoloCorp does this in every project - requirements evolve episode by episode, and you must adapt your system.

## Interview Topics YoloCorp Covers

### Database Design
- Schema normalization
- Indexing strategies
- Migration patterns
- Data modeling

### API Design
- RESTful principles
- Versioning strategies
- Contract-first design
- Backward compatibility

### Containerization
- Docker fundamentals
- Service orchestration
- Environment configuration
- Deployment workflows

### Data Persistence
- State management
- Data migrations
- Backward compatibility
- Long-term storage

### Testing Strategies
- Integration testing
- Black-box testing
- System behavior validation
- Data continuity testing

## Real Interview Questions YoloCorp Helps With

**"Design a task queue system"**
- YoloCorp projects may require async processing
- You'll design the queue, workers, and persistence

**"How would you handle schema migrations with zero downtime?"**
- YoloCorp forces migrations between episodes
- You'll practice strategies that work

**"Design a REST API for [domain]"**
- Every YoloCorp project requires API design
- You choose the contracts and patterns

**"How would you scale this to handle more load?"**
- YoloCorp requirements evolve
- You'll refactor and adapt your architecture

## What Makes YoloCorp Different

### LeetCode-style platforms:
- Practice algorithms
- Don't build real systems
- No architecture decisions

### YoloCorp:
- Build complete backend systems
- Make architectural choices
- Handle evolving requirements
- Practice explaining trade-offs

## Beyond Interview Prep

The best part? These skills transfer directly to the job.

- **Interview prep**: Practice system design questions
- **Job readiness**: Build systems like you will at work

You're not just memorizing patterns - you're building real experience.

## Getting Started

Ready to practice system design with real backend projects?

[Download the CLI](/downloads) and start building.

**Pro tip for interviews**: YoloCorp projects make great portfolio pieces. When asked "tell me about a project you built," you'll have concrete examples of architecture decisions and trade-offs.