core practice · system design prompt
Design exercise: Containers & Kubernetes
Namespaces, cgroups, OCI images, container runtimes, Kubernetes scheduling, controllers, networking, and storage. Implement designOutline() returning non-empty values for: isolationPrimitive, desiredState, reconciliation. Each value must name a concrete mechanism or decision.
The mechanism
A container is an isolated process; Kubernetes is a reconciliation system that continuously drives observed state toward declared state.
Expected evidence
A design outline with isolationPrimitive, desiredState, reconciliation plus an explicit failure mode or trade-off.
Try this drill in the practice workspace →
Hints when you need them
- Name the failure mode before selecting the mechanism.