Anthropic system design interview
Round 6 of 8 · 24 questions reported
- Length
- 55 min
- Format
- Design discussion, often typed into a shared Google Doc rather than drawn; some rounds let you share any drawing tool
- They grade
- APIs, data model, request flow, handling the stated load, and at least one failure case
- AI use
- No AI
- Heads-up
- Leans toward AI infrastructure: batch inference APIs, keeping GPUs busy under batching limits, shipping large model files to many machines. Other prompts are a prompt playground (closer to product design), a one-to-one chat system and a data platform. Managers may review a design doc instead, and some loops use two design rounds on the team's own domain.
Questions Anthropic asks in this round 24
- Batched LLM inference API over GPUsSep 2026 · very often
- One-on-one chat system with presence and offline queueOct 2026 · often
- Critique a design doc from the team's backlogSep 2026 · often
- Design a distributed AI model downloaderAug 2026 · often
- Design an AI prompt playgroundAug 2026 · often
- Matmul performance modeling on a fixed GPUSep 2026 · rarely
- Data platform with ingestion and governed accessSep 2026 · rarely
- ML configuration system with inheritance and validationApr 2026 · rarely
- Debug a GRPO training script and defend the RL mathMar 2026 · rarely
- Self-contained ML take-home with live reviewFeb 2026 · rarely
- Prompt design with evaluation scaffoldingJan 2026 · rarely
- Mechanistic interpretability experiment on double descentApr 2026 · once
- Design a GPU scheduling platform
- Design a RAG system over company docs
- Design a Slack-like chat system
- Design an AI coding agent sandbox
- Design an LLM inference serving platform
- Design ChatGPT
- Design Facebook Messenger
- Design review: an eval gate for model launches
- Design review: checkpointing a large training run
- Design review: rolling out a new model version
- Design review: usage billing for an LLM API
- Evaluate a new LLM before launch
About the Anthropic system design round
What does Anthropic ask in the system design round?
The most asked: Batched LLM inference API over GPUs, One-on-one chat system with presence and offline queue and Critique a design doc from the team's backlog. 24 questions reported in all.
How long is the Anthropic system design round?
About 55 minutes.
What is the Anthropic system design round like?
Design discussion, often typed into a shared Google Doc rather than drawn; some rounds let you share any drawing tool. They grade: APIs, data model, request flow, handling the stated load, and at least one failure case.
Can you use AI in the Anthropic system design round?
No AI.