core practice · system design prompt
Design exercise: Data Warehouses & Lakehouses
Columnar files, table formats, storage-compute separation, batch execution, metadata, governance, and lakehouse architecture. Implement designOutline() returning non-empty values for: storageFormat, metadataLayer, queryExecution. Each value must name a concrete mechanism or decision.
The mechanism
Warehouses optimize governed analytical execution; lakehouses place open table metadata over object storage. Both depend on pruning, columnar scans, and reliable metadata.
Expected evidence
A design outline with storageFormat, metadataLayer, queryExecution 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.