# Design a group chat application — interview question | Aced (formerly Exponent)

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Source: https://www.aced.io/questions/3634/design-group-chat-application
Source observed: 2026-11-05T00:13:18.593Z
Last checked: 2026-11-05T00:13:18.593+00:00
Indexed: 2026-11-06T21:07:16.191+00:00

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# Design a group chat application.

We provide this as a system-design interview question in our interview-preparation community. Use it to prepare for software-engineering and related interviews.

## Question details

- **Category:** [System Design](https://www.aced.io/questions?type=system-design)
- **Roles:** [Software Engineer](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=swe) — 4; [BizOps & Strategy](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=bizops)
- **Companies associated with this question:** [JP Morgan Chase](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=jp-morgan-chase) — 2; [Airbnb](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=airbnb); [OpenAI](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=openai); [Google](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=google)
- **Reported last asked:** 6 months ago
- **Interview reports:** 15 additional interview reports are available through the question interface. Detailed company statistics require an upgrade: [Upgrade](https://www.aced.io/upgrade?src=questions).

## Interview experiences

Two interview experiences are shared for this question:

### Airbnb — 6 months ago

[Read the Airbnb interview experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/airbnb-senior-software-engineer-interview-e2ba9f)

**Role:** Software Engineer · Senior / L5

> “5 rounds in total, quite standard. Only thing different was had to spend a lot of time preparing for culture fit as it was non technical behavior. e.g nicest thing you have done”

### OpenAI — 10 months ago

[Read the OpenAI interview experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/openai-software-engineer-interview-20a84c)

**Role:** Software Engineer

> “I got into the process through cold outreach plus a referral, and even that took a month or two of pushing before I got the first interview. After a pretty normal recruiter screen, I had two same-day phone rounds: one coding and one system design. The onsite was four rounds for me: coding, system design, technical deep dive on my own project, and behavioral. My big takeaway is that the coding bar is much more intense than standard big tech and feels closer to Anthropic, while the system design and behavioral pieces are more familiar. I was still waiting on the decision when we talked, and the biggest wildcard in the whole process was interviewer variability.”

## Community answers

No answers have been contributed by the community yet. You can log in or sign up to submit an answer; submitting marks the question complete.

## Related questions

- [Design a link sharing application.](https://www.aced.io/questions/7302/design-link-sharing-application)
- [Design a file upload feature for an AI chat application.](https://www.aced.io/questions/5916/design-file-upload-feature)
- [Design a restaurant menu application.](https://www.aced.io/questions/1949/design-restaurant-menu-application)

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