Design a job portal database like LinkedIn jobs
PremiumDatabase designEasy
- Application tracking
- Hiring pipeline
- Search filters
Quick answer
This database design interview question asks you to design a job portal database like LinkedIn jobs. Aim for a design that stores data correctly and serves its main queries well, then explain the schema, keys, indexes and trade-offs. Interviewers want to see how you model entities, choose keys and design for the real access patterns.
The problem
Design the database for a job portal like LinkedIn Jobs. Recruiters post jobs for their companies; candidates search and filter jobs, save them, apply with a resume and follow their application through a hiring pipeline. The hard parts are one application per posting, fast filtered search and resume privacy.
A posting has a title, location, salary range, skills and a closing date. Candidates keep a profile with experience and skills. Recruiters review applicants and move them between stages.
What must a job portal database like LinkedIn jobs do?
- Post a job: A recruiter creates, edits, publishes and closes a posting; a posting belongs to one company and can list several required skills.
- Apply: A candidate applies once per posting with a chosen resume version and optional answers to screening questions; applying to a closed posting is refused.
How well must it do it?
- One application per posting: A candidate can apply once per posting, enforced by the database.
- Privacy: A candidate's resume is visible only to recruiters of the company they applied to.
What scale should you design for?
Use these numbers in your estimates.
The scale numbers unlock with this questionUnlock
Key concepts
- Application tracking
- Hiring pipeline
- Search filters
- Relational modeling
- Soft deletes
- Read replicas
How you’ll practise
- Access patterns
- Entities
- Schema
- Indexes and queries
- Scale and consistency
- Wrap-up
Lala, personalized to you, gives a hint when you ask and reviews your design when you are ready.
What do interviewers look for?
In any database design round.
- Lists the entities and how they relate before writing tables
- Designs the schema around the main access patterns
- Chooses primary keys, foreign keys and indexes with reasons
- Explains where to normalise and where to denormalise
- Considers integrity, transactions and concurrent writes
- Plans for growth: partitioning, archiving and migrations
Questions people ask about this interview question
- Which design type is this question?
- It is a database design question. You design a job portal database like LinkedIn jobs and explain your choices the way you would in an interview.
- Is this question asked at entry level?
- It is marked Easy, so it suits engineers who are new to database design interviews. It is also a good warm-up before harder questions.
- What should I cover first?
- Start with the entities and the main queries the database must answer. Agree on scope with the interviewer before you design anything.
- Can I practise it for free?
- It is a premium question. Sign up and unlock it once for 10 credits; it then stays unlocked. When you finish, Lala, your personalized AI mentor, can review your design for 30 credits.
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Updated · Written by the SevyDevy team