Capacity Planning
Design an Online Auction · Part 5
Problem context
Design a real-time auction: many bidders compete on an item, each bid must beat the current high, the price climbs live in front of thousands of watchers, and the auction closes at a hard deadline with an unambiguous winner.
In scope: placing bids, viewing the current price, watching a live price feed, and closing an auction with exactly one winner. Out of scope: proxy (automatic) bidding beyond a brief variant, fraud detection, and the payment charge itself.
What a strong answer sounds like
State the decision, connect it to a requirement, and name the tradeoff. Keep the design focused on the workload in the prompt.
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