"You have 40 minutes to design this database" (job interview)

I've designed a db or two in 40 mins. Or is it a complete database engine that is more than kv?

> "We're releasing the patch in a week".

- One tester is on vacation.

- Two testers covering three platforms, each.

Essentially, we had only two days per platform so we had to cut corners wherever we could just to meet that deadline.

I figure sometimes these kinds of questions are not intended to be solved to 100% completion but kinda intended as a way to see what the candidate will prioritise when given a tough task.

Could be that an acceptable response is to spend a few minutes asking for clarifications about what they expect, and the deliver a rough idea. 🤷

(Not saying this is necessarily a gotcha-question, it may well be that the interviewer didn't really consider they gave someone a task that takes 3 hours and just gave em 40 min..but still - they may accept that a candidate reframes the question as "Yeah given the insane time limit I'm just gonna answer this in a different way" and they will respect that)

As someone who got their degree in database design, this would be fun actually :)