# Design a product recommendation system — interview question Aced (formerly Exponent) publishes a public search API over its indexed pages; the guide is at https://www.aced.io/agents/agent-access. Source: https://www.aced.io/questions/3094/design-product-recommendation-system Source observed: 2026-11-04T22:42:51.576Z Last checked: 2026-11-04T22:42:51.576+00:00 Indexed: 2026-11-05T22:24:51.247+00:00 --- # Design a product recommendation system. We publish this machine-learning and system-design interview question for interview preparation. The question is associated with **6 interviews**, was **last asked 2 months ago**, and has **4 shared interview experiences**. It is listed under the **Machine Learning** and **System Design** categories. **Roles associated with this question:** - [Machine Learning Engineer](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=ml-engineer) — 4 - [Engineering Manager](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=em) — 2 **Companies associated with this question:** - [Meta](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=meta-facebook) — 3 - [Wayfair](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=wayfair) - [Reddit](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=reddit) - [Pinterest](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=pinterest) ## Interview experiences We have 4 shared experiences: ### Wayfair — 2 months ago **Machine Learning Engineer · Mid Level / L4** > “The process was much quicker and smoother than at other companies. Recruiters shared some pointers on what to prepare, and mostly it was around that only. What did not go well was that one interview was online, and others were on-site.” [Read the Wayfair interview experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/wayfair-machine-learning-engineer-interview-85f727) ### Meta — 7 months ago **Engineering Manager** > “I interviewed for an M1 Engineering Manager role, and the process included a screening round first, followed by the main loop. The screening consisted of one broad behavioral interview and one system design interview, in which I could choose between machine learning systems, software systems, and products; I chose machine learning. In the main loop, I had another ML system design round, a project deep dive, a team management interview, another behavioral round, and an AI-assisted coding interview. The AI-assisted coding piece was the newest part of the process for me, but the bigger surprise was how behaviorally heavy the EM loop was. My main takeaway is that they expect you to provide depth on your own, even if the interviewer isn't especially good at eliciting it.” [Read the Meta interview experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/meta-facebook-engineering-manager-interview-916dc8) ### Meta — 7 months ago **Engineering Manager** > “I interviewed for an M1 Engineering Manager role, and the process included a screening round first, followed by the main loop. The screening consisted of one broad behavioral interview and one system design interview, in which I could choose between machine learning systems, software systems, and products; I chose machine learning. In the main loop, I had another ML system design round, a project deep dive, a team management interview, another behavioral round, and an AI-assisted coding interview. The AI-assisted coding piece was the newest part of the process for me, but the bigger surprise was how behaviorally heavy the EM loop was. My main takeaway is that they expect you to provide depth on your own, even if the interviewer isn't especially good at eliciting it.” [Read the Meta interview experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/meta-facebook-engineering-manager-interview-916dc8) ### Reddit — 2 years ago **Machine Learning Engineer · Staff / L6** > “I interviewed for a Senior Staff MLE role, and the biggest thing I’d say is Reddit felt pretty team dependent, so I wouldn’t assume every team runs the exact same loop. Mine started with a recruiter screen that surprisingly included a couple very basic ML questions, then a hands-on technical screen where I had to work with data in a notebook-style environment and get a model actually running. The final loop was ML fundamentals, ML system design, coding, and a hiring manager round. The ML system design round was the most interesting because I had prepped for a modeling-heavy conversation and got pushed much more into ML infra, like deployment, latency, feature pipelines, and how the A/B test would work under the hood.” [Read the Reddit interview experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/reddit-staff-machine-learning-engineer-interview-826916) ## Community answers No answers have been contributed by the community yet. ## Related questions - [Design a Spotify Recommendation System.](https://www.aced.io/questions/4006/design-spotify-recommendation-system) - [Design a taxi recommendation system for airports.](https://www.aced.io/questions/5094/design-taxi-recommendation-system-for-airports) - [Design a product that provides podcast recommendations.](https://www.aced.io/questions/1818/podcast-recommendation-product-design) ## Related courses ### [Machine Learning Engineer Interview Prep](https://www.aced.io/courses/ml-engineer) ![Machine Learning Engineer Interview Prep](https://images.ctfassets.net/x78yjrjc11pq/6UfkHxUyLQVfDHSfLNQtWa/1be1539a65b4f6f15201f5b573c0a578/ML_Engineer_Interview_Prep_Course.jpeg?w=800&h=800&fm=webp&q=75) Land your dream machine learning role at Meta, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and other top companies. Learn from mock interviews, frameworks, and advice from senior candidates. Explore ML system design, core concepts, coding, behavioral interviews, and more. ### [Engineering Management Interview Prep](https://www.aced.io/courses/engineering-management) ![Engineering Management Interview Prep](https://images.ctfassets.net/x78yjrjc11pq/5AqarwlCDWmr0W7AbMJFwp/16862dab13471f5eb8728b27eb2fbc07/engineering_management_track_compressed_bbabaec4a6__281_29_9a9687c1fb.jpeg?w=800&h=800&fm=webp&q=75) Land your dream engineering manager role at Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Stripe, and other top companies. Learn from mock interviews, frameworks, and advice from senior candidates. Explore system design, people management, project retros, behavioral interviews, and more. ## Access and response Detailed company statistics for this question are available through [Upgrade](https://www.aced.io/upgrade?src=questions). 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