Just finished the Figma loop for a senior SWE (L5-equivalent) role. The system design round is the one people seem most uncertain about so let me be specific.
They gave me a classic collaborative-tool scenario, essentially: design the real-time sync layer for a multiplayer editing feature. Not Figma itself but clearly inspired by it. You're expected to work through: Data model for document state Conflict resolution strategy (CRDT vs. OT, they know the difference, bring yours) WebSocket vs. long polling tradeoff and when each breaks Scaling to 10k concurrent users on a single doc Persistence and snapshotting approach
The interviewer was genuinely technical and pushed back twice. Not in an adversarial way, more like "okay but what happens if two users move the same object at the same frame." That's where a lot of candidates get flattened.
The bar felt higher than what I saw at most B2B SaaS interviews in 2025. Closer to Meta/Stripe territory. I think Figma knows their product is technically ambitious and they want people who've actually thought about eventual consistency in a real product context, not just rehearsed a whiteboard script.
Time was 45 minutes. I used about 35 of it on the design and 10 on a mini-deep-dive they steered.
Prepare to discuss CAP theorem decisions in the context of collaborative editing specifically, not just abstractly. And know your WebSocket scaling patterns cold. They asked me what happens to the socket server during a deploy. Good question, had an okay answer, could have been better.
Comp at L5 SF: I've seen $280-340k TC in recent data points. Mine came in at $305k, base around $185k. Felt fair for the difficulty.