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How to Use InterviewMan in a System Design Interview
Set up InterviewMan for a system design round: let it hear the interviewer, screenshot the whiteboard so it can read your diagram, and get nudges on scope, trade-offs, and bottlenecks while staying off the shared screen.
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Video Tutorial
InterviewMan in a System Design Round: a Mermaid Diagram Drawn Live
How to Set It Up for a System Design Round
1
Why a system design round is different
There is no single right answer. The interviewer grades how you scope the problem, draw an architecture, and defend each choice. InterviewMan draws a real architecture diagram (a Mermaid diagram) for your exact prompt, not a generic step list, and nudges the scope question or trade-off you are about to skip. You reproduce and defend it on the whiteboard. Learn the round in our system design interview guide.
2
Let the app hear the interviewer
The app reads the prompt from the interviewer's voice. Use two devices: take the call on your main device, run the app on a second one near the speaker, call on speaker, no headphones. Full setup in the hear-the-interviewer guide.
3
Keep the whiteboard on your primary screen
System design happens on a shared diagram (Excalidraw, a doc, CoderPad). The app screenshots your primary screen, so keep the whiteboard there. On a Mac, that is the screen with the menu bar. If you use two monitors, keep the diagram on the primary one.
4
Capture the whole diagram before you press Assist
Zoom so the prompt text and the full diagram fit on screen (⌘ and minus on Mac, Ctrl and minus on Windows). Take a screenshot (⌘ + H on Mac, Ctrl + H on Windows, or Screenshot on your phone in Stealth Mode). For a large diagram, take several as you scroll. Then press Assist once (⌘ + Enter on Mac, Ctrl + Enter on Windows). If a capture is cut off, the app says so instead of guessing, see the screenshot guide.
5
Ask for the right nudge at the right stage
Scope first (users, read or write heavy, latency, strong or eventual consistency), then the high-level design, then trade-offs on the deep dive, then bottlenecks. Press Assist when you stall, and say the suggestion in your own words. Step-by-step examples are in our system design AI playbook.
6
Answers too short or too long? Set the length
Answer length is controlled by the extra instructions field in the app settings. For detailed system design answers, add: "For system design questions, give a detailed answer: the clarifying questions to ask first, functional and non-functional requirements, the high-level architecture, the data model, the main trade-offs, bottlenecks and how to scale, and a full Mermaid diagram." For short answers, add: "For system design questions, keep it to 3 to 5 bullet points with the key components, one trade-off, and the diagram." Leave the field empty to go back to the default. Full details in custom settings.
7
Add your prepared notes
Paste prepared material into the same extra instructions field and say when to use it: your preferred stack and components for system design, or your prepared behavioral stories (for example Amazon Leadership Principle stories) so answers draw on your real experience. Example: "Here are my prepared stories. Use them when I am asked behavioral questions: [paste your stories here]".
8
Stay off the shared screen
You will usually share your screen so the interviewer can watch the whiteboard. The overlay stays out of the shared window and reads your screen without appearing in the capture. For a full desktop share, use two-device Stealth Mode: the desktop app runs hidden on your laptop, your phone is the full interface, and you tap Screenshot and Assist on the phone, so no InterviewMan hotkey is ever pressed on the laptop keyboard.
Practice Before the Real Round
• Pick three classic prompts: URL shortener, rate limiter, news feed. • Set up exactly as on interview day: two devices, whiteboard on the primary screen, Stealth Mode if you plan to use it. • Run each as a timed 40-minute mock, out loud. By the third run the scope questions and trade-off sentences come from you, and the app is just backup.
Stealth Mode on Mac
The Mac app stays hidden and your phone shows the full interface: • Arrange the whiteboard on your Mac first (zoom out, fit the whole diagram). • Tap Screenshot on your phone. Tap it again after each scroll for a large diagram. • Tap Assist on your phone once the whole diagram is captured.