System Design

Develop a secure distributed system for secrets storage and access.

Software EngineerEngineering ManagerTechnical Program ManagerMachine Learning Engineer

Microsoft

Netflix

TikTok

Instacart

Citrix Systems

Cognizant

Did you come across this question in an interview?

Answers

Expert Answer

Anonymous

4.6Exceptional
Core Design: Leader-follower architecture with the leader handling all operations for consistency. Each secret is versioned and encrypted using envelope encryption - data keys encrypt secrets, master key (in HSM) encrypts data keys. Storage uses replicated etcd cluster.
Security:
  • Authentication: Short-lived tokens (15m), MFA for sensitive operations
  • Authorization: Path-based RBAC policies
  • Encryption: AES-256-GCM with per-secret nonces, 30-day key rotation
  • Audit: Comprehensive logging of all access attempts
Failure Handling: Leader steps down if quorum lost, automatic failover via consensus, encrypted backups with strict access controls. System fails closed on encryption/auth errors.
  • Build a system for decentralized secrets management.
  • Develop a secure distributed system for secrets storage and access.
  • Design a scalable solution for managing secrets in a distributed system.
  • Implement a distributed secrets management platform.
  • Create a system to manage secrets across distributed services.
  • Architect a system for handling distributed secrets securely.
  • Build a distributed system for secure secrets management.
  • Design a system for managing secrets in a distributed environment.
  • Design a system for managing a distributed secrets management system.
Try Our AI Interviewer

Prepare for success with realistic, role-specific interview simulations.

Try AI Interview Now

Interview question asked to Technical Program Managers, Software Engineers, Machine Learning Engineers and other roles interviewing at Magic Leap, BYJUS, Klarna and others: Develop a secure distributed system for secrets storage and access..