I added GenAI System Design to my interviews. Then I tried to pass one myself.

I've been interviewing software engineers for a while. Recently I started incorporating GenAI system design into the loop — RAG pipelines, agent architectures, evaluation strategies. The kind of questions that are now standard at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta. Before I started asking candidates these questions, I wanted to make sure I understood what a strong answer actually looked like from the other side. So I went looking for reference material. That search led me to an AI-powered mock interview tool built specifically for this type of question. I figured I'd run through a session. I've conducted hundreds of interviews. I know this material cold. I was not expecting what happened next. The Session The question was a system design problem. The kind I've watched candidates struggle with dozens of times. I've sat on the other side of this exact type of question. I know what a strong answer looks like. I started talking. I went into architecture. I covered components. I felt fine.