Design Airbnb
PremiumProduct architectureMedium
- Availability search
- Geospatial search
- Double booking prevention
Quick answer
This product architecture interview question asks you to design Airbnb. Aim for a design that meets its requirements at the stated scale, then explain its main components, data flow and trade-offs. Interviewers want to see how you scope the problem, size it and defend each choice.
The problem
Design Airbnb, a marketplace where hosts list homes and guests search by place and dates, then book a stay. The hard parts are searching millions of listings by location and date availability in under a second, and making sure two guests can never book the same nights.
What must the system do?
- Search: Search by place or map area, check-in and check-out dates and guests, with price and type filters; only listings free for every night appear, 20 per page.
- Book: Instant Book confirms at once; Request to Book holds the dates for 24 hours while the host accepts or declines.
How well must it do it?
- No double booking: Two guests can never hold or book the same listing for overlapping nights.
- Fast search: Search returns in under 800 ms at p99, including the date availability check.
What scale should you design for?
Use these numbers in your estimates.
The scale numbers unlock with this questionUnlock
Key concepts
- Availability search
- Geospatial search
- Double booking prevention
- Availability bitmap
- Booking holds
- Idempotency keys
How you’ll practise
- Requirements
- Core entities
- API design
- Client and server flow
- Scale and edge cases
- 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 product architecture design round.
- Clarifies the requirements before drawing anything
- Uses a few numbers that actually change the design
- Draws a clear path from the client to storage
- Picks storage and caching with reasons, not by habit
- Explains what breaks first under load and how to fix it
- States trade-offs openly instead of claiming a perfect design
Questions people ask about this interview question
- Which design type is this question?
- It is a product architecture question. You design Airbnb and explain your choices the way you would in an interview.
- Is this question asked at entry level?
- It is marked Medium. Entry-level engineers can practise it, but it expects you to reason about requirements and trade-offs, not only list components.
- What should I cover first?
- Start with the requirements: what the system must do, how well it must do it and which numbers change the design. 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