Interview Questions/System Design/Design an Online Marketplace
AdvancedSystem-Design
45 min

Design an Online Marketplace

E-commerceSearchPaymentsTrust & Safety
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Interview Question

Design a marketplace platform with listings, search, buyer/seller profiles, escrow-like payments, dispute resolution, and fraud prevention.

Key Points to Cover
  • Listing service & search: indexing, filters, ranking by quality
  • User reputation and review system; anti-fraud signals
  • Payment holds/escrow, dispute flows, chargeback handling
  • Messaging between buyers/sellers; privacy and abuse controls
  • Inventory consistency and availability; cancellation policies
  • Observability, SLAs, and policy enforcement
Evaluation Rubric
Solid listing/search/payment primitives30% weight
Trust & safety and dispute design25% weight
Inventory/transaction correctness25% weight
Operational readiness & SLAs20% weight
Hints
  • 💡Consider staged captures and release-on-delivery.
Potential Follow-up Questions
  • How do you detect review fraud?
  • How to prevent off-platform transactions?
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