For your next interview
Think clearly under pressure.
Turn an unfamiliar question into a design discussion. Practice framing requirements, comparing alternatives, and explaining the trade-off behind your answer.
Build your interview approachSystem design + AI architecture
Make architecture decisions you can explain and defend.
Practical lessons for software developers and architects. Prepare for system design interviews, work through real design challenges, and understand how AI changes the systems you build.
Two ways to begin
What are you working toward?
The context may change. The habit stays the same: make your assumptions visible and examine the consequences.
For the systems you build
Bring judgment to the design.
Work through data, AI agents, reliability, evaluation, recovery, and cost. Connect an emerging capability to the choices your team actually faces.
Explore practical architectureA question worth examining
Start where the answer gets interesting.
Request sentA caller asks the service to act.
No response receivedWhat do we know about the outcome?
Choose the recovery pathVerify the result before repeating work.
Reliability and recovery
The request timed out. Did the action happen?
A missing response leaves an important question open. Examine the evidence your system needs before it retries, reconciles, or asks for help.
A hypothetical teaching scenario for interviews and design reviews.
Work through the decisionMeet your host
Bring the question you are working through.
I’m Rohit Bhardwaj. I created AI Architect Circle to help developers and architects reason clearly about systems and learn from one another’s questions.
More about RohitFree live conversations
System Design with AI — Live with the Author
Bring a scenario from an interview, a project, or a design review. Work through the choices with Rohit and a community of curious practitioners.
Series overview
A regular space for a better question.
Saturdays at 9:00 a.m. Eastern
Free to attend. No book purchase or advance reading required.
Register through Zoom for an available session. Explore the podcast invitation and watch published lessons on our Live page.
The book by Rohit Bhardwaj
System Design with AI Interview Guide
Read. Practice. Reconsider.
Build an approach you can make your own.
Use the book alongside practical guides, design exercises, and live conversations. Move from an initial answer to reasoning you can explain in your own words.
Explore the bookFrom the resource library
Useful ideas. Something to try.
How to Frame a System Design Problem Before Choosing Components
Turn an ambiguous booking request into explicit outcomes, constraints, and a first decision. Includes a printable Design Decision Worksheet.
Define the Boundary Between an Agent Draft and a Real Action
Specify what an agent may prepare, what authorizes execution, and what happens when approval or verification is unavailable. Includes a printable review worksheet.
Measure Cost per Successful Task Before Optimizing Tokens
Compare two hypothetical AI workflows using the same quality bar, full run cost, and verified task outcomes. Includes a worked calculation.
Continue the conversation
A weekly brief for decisions that matter.
You do not need to follow every announcement. Focus on the developments that change a decision, the evidence behind them, and the next question worth asking.
See the brief’s formatA few useful answers
You are welcome to start here.
Who is AI Architect Circle for?
Software developers and architects who want to strengthen their system design judgment. You may be preparing for an interview, moving toward architecture, or deciding how AI belongs in a system.
Do I need the book to use the resources?
No. The guides, worksheets, and live-series information are free to explore. The book is a companion for readers who want to study the approach further.
Does this cover using AI or building AI systems?
Both. We explore how AI can challenge assumptions and help examine alternatives, and how to design systems that use AI with clear boundaries, evidence, and operational control.
Free member resources
Put your reasoning on the page.
Get two practical PDF worksheets for design decisions and agent action boundaries. Create a free account, choose whether to receive the Brief, and return whenever you need the resources.
Join AI Architect Circle free
No payment details. Articles remain open to everyone.