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First 2 free Intermediate System Design

System Design – Authentication

Practice system design interview questions focused on authentication. Cover sessions, tokens, OAuth, and security considerations. Answer questions and receive feedback on clarity and trade-offs. Ideal for software engineer system design prep. First 2 questions are free with full feedback.

  • Level Intermediate
  • Questions 12
  • authentication

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Sample system design – authentication interview questions

Preview 6 questions from this track in quiz order. In the full quiz you answer one at a time — type or speak — then get a score and feedback.

  1. What is the difference between authentication and authorization?

    What a strong answer includes

    Authentication verifies identity; authorization checks permissions.

  2. How do session-based authentication work?

    What a strong answer includes

    Server stores session; client sends session ID.

  3. What is a JWT?

    What a strong answer includes

    Self-contained token with claims.

  4. What are the trade-offs of JWTs vs sessions?

    What a strong answer includes

    JWTs are stateless but harder to revoke.

  5. How do you securely store passwords?

    What a strong answer includes

    Uses hashing with salt (e.g. bcrypt).

  6. What is OAuth?

    What a strong answer includes

    Delegated authorization framework.