IntermediateSystem-Design
30 min
Design Real-Time Location Sharing
RealtimeGeoMobilePrivacy
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Interview Question
Design a “find my friends” style service with real-time location updates, privacy zones, and battery-friendly clients.
Key Points to Cover
- Efficient update frequency and batching; geofencing on device
- Geo-indexing for proximity; tiles/cells for map queries
- Publish/subscribe fanout; rate limits and backpressure
- Privacy controls: consent lists, obfuscation, safe zones
- Offline mode, last-known location, and data TTLs
Evaluation Rubric
Battery-aware client strategy25% weight
Scalable geo-indexing & queries25% weight
Robust privacy/consent model25% weight
Reliable streaming fanout25% weight
Hints
- 💡Use coarse updates when users are stationary.
Potential Follow-up Questions
- ❓How to prevent location spoofing?
- ❓How to encrypt location at rest and in motion?
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