System design at junior level is about showing structured thinking, not deep expertise.
What you learned:
- Junior expectations are lower than you feared
- Know the basics: client-server, APIs, databases, caching
- Use a framework: clarify, design, deep-dive, bottlenecks
- Discuss tradeoffs instead of claiming "right" answers
Your action items:
Understand the basic building blocks
Practice - junior-level questions out loud
For each choice, prepare to explain why
Career Changer Tip: Your business background helps here. You understand user needs and tradeoffs better than many CS grads.