1 min lesson
Mock system-design round
Use two rows in "Mock system-design round" to state the practical decision rules.
Step 1 of 3
This is the round where Cursor's actual job becomes the whiteboard. You're designing the platform that every Tab keystroke, Agent run and chat message flows through and the interviewer is listening for numbers, not adjectives.
Set 45 minutes. Talk the whole time. The prompt is deliberately the company's real problem.
The prompt
“Design Cursor's inference gateway, cross-provider failover and backpressure for millions of requests across Tab completions, Agent sessions and chat. Put numbers on your latency, cost and failure budgets.”