Senior/Staff System Design Mock

Mikhail Sychev

with Mikhail Sychev

Practice with a former Google/Waymo Staff Engineer who conducted 200+ technical interviews and was Tech Lead on modern YouTube.com, shipping to 2B+ users. We'll tailor a system design mock to … Read more

1 hour Book a time instantly 5.0 6 reviews
Mikhail Sychev

Mikhail Sychev

CTO & Co-founder | Ex-Google/Waymo Staff SWE and TL at Alphabet

$179 one session
5.0 6 reviews 🇺🇸
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About this session

Practice with a former Google/Waymo Staff Engineer who conducted 200+ technical interviews and was Tech Lead on modern YouTube.com, shipping to 2B+ users. We'll tailor a system design mock to your target role: about 40 minutes of interview and 20 minutes of feedback on architecture, trade-offs and communication. Leave with a concise scorecard and prioritized practice areas. Share your target role and experience level before the session.

Your mentor

If you use dark mode on YouTube, I built that.

I spent 12 years at Google/YouTube and Waymo, growing from L3 to L6, then left to build. I help engineers land senior and staff roles, grow into technical leadership, and take AI products from prototype to production.

WHAT I'VE BUILT

• GOOGLE / YOUTUBE — 8 years. Tech Lead on modern YouTube.com, shipping to 2B+ users. Built dark mode and led the world's largest WebP rollout.

• WAYMO — 4 years, L6. Worked on ML and GenAI systems, including the San Francisco autonomous rollout.

• STARTUP / GENERATIVE AI — Technical co-founder of an a16z Speedrun-backed startup and creator of Pony Diffusion: 1M+ downloads and 1B+ generations.

• HIRING & CAREER GROWTH — Conducted 200+ technical interviews and calibration across L3–L6. I've been on both sides of the interview table and navigated that progression myself.

WHAT WE CAN WORK ON

• LAND YOUR NEXT ROLE: System design, coding and behavioral interview preparation, mock interviews, and resume feedback. Learn to communicate your technical judgment and impact at the level you're targeting.

• GROW WHERE YOU ARE: Promotion strategy, finding work with greater scope, technical leadership, and navigating team and organizational dynamics.

• BUILD AN AI PRODUCT: Architecture, model choices, evaluation, training, deployment and serving. I also help technical founders think through founding hires, co-founder decisions and their technical story for investors.

HOW WE WORK

We choose one priority and work on your actual resume, design, project or career decision. The monthly plan includes two 60-minute calls and chat support, with replies within two working days. Expect candid, specific feedback and clear next steps.

See me explain the YouTube.com rebuild:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TzF3Pshx2Y

The story behind YouTube's WebP rollout:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/04/cheaper-bandwidth-or-bust-how-google-saved-youtube/

Send me your goal, current situation and timeline. I'll tell you where I can help and what a useful first month could look like.

What mentees say

5.0 (6 reviews)
“Mikhail might be the single best possible mentor for anyone out there! As a software engineer fairly new to the industry, I had many concerns about the direction I should take my career, what my goals should be, how I s…” “Mikhail might be the single best possible mentor for anyone out there! As a software engineer fairly new to the industry, I had many concerns about the direction I should take my career, what my goals should be, how I should approach the technical and political aspect of the job, where my primary struggles should be, and an overall lack of direction on what my engineering path should like. Mikhail, at multiple points throughout the mentorship, empathetically understood my painpoints and helped me reason through what the best possible decisions I could make were. Mikhail also brings an unbelievable wealth of experience and perspective. From probably one of the most impressive trajectories an engineer can have in the industry, Mike provided countless knowledge drops on technical concepts related to Machine Learning, System designs and architecture, Founding and VC's, on top of an introduction into his network of fellow a16Z and Waymo peers. For the cherry on top, Mikhail is also just a super fun person to chat and connect with as he participates in some of the most unique hobbies (acting, improv, martial arts, wrestling) and he is always asking and wanting to learn more and connect with his mentee. I couldn't recconmend Mikhail more and no matter what step you are in your career, I am sure Mikhail can provide immense help and direction on top of being a great friend and person to connect with!”
Avi

Avi

Standard Plan · 6 months

“Mike is an excellent mentor and an equally wonderful person. He possesses a vast amount of knowledge and is always willing to share it with others. I have truly enjoyed our technical and non-technical discussions, mock …” “Mike is an excellent mentor and an equally wonderful person. He possesses a vast amount of knowledge and is always willing to share it with others. I have truly enjoyed our technical and non-technical discussions, mock interviews, and job search conversations, all of which have been incredibly valuable and insightful.”
Sagar

Sagar

Standard Plan · 3 months

“I sought mentorship because I had several important interviews coming up and wanted guidance from someone experienced to help me prepare effectively. Working with Mike has been an outstanding experience. He takes the…” “I sought mentorship because I had several important interviews coming up and wanted guidance from someone experienced to help me prepare effectively. Working with Mike has been an outstanding experience. He takes the time to truly understand the challenges you’re facing and provides thoughtful, practical guidance on how to approach them. He helped me focus on the right technical areas to prepare for my interviews and spent time helping me refine and frame my experiences so they communicate impact clearly. What truly stands out about Mike is how genuinely invested he is in helping his mentees succeed. I always felt that he approached my challenges as if they were his own, not just a task he was helping with. Even though I’m still in the early stages of my interview process, his guidance has already been incredibly valuable and helped me think about aspects of interview preparation that I hadn’t considered before. I highly recommend Mike to anyone preparing for technical leadership interviews or looking for thoughtful and supportive mentorship.”
Nirmin

Nirmin

Standard Plan · 1 month

“Mikhail is a great mentor. He helped me build an end to end streaming pipeline. I think he can understand exactly what you need out of mentorship very well and come up practices/exercises that make sense for someone to …” “Mikhail is a great mentor. He helped me build an end to end streaming pipeline. I think he can understand exactly what you need out of mentorship very well and come up practices/exercises that make sense for someone to improve. I would 100% recommend him for anyone that is truly looking to get better.”
Sriram

Sriram

Standard Plan · 1 month

“I really enjoyed my resume session with Mikhail. His process is very thorough and collaborative, starting with understanding your background and career goals before creating a new version of the resume and incorporating…” “I really enjoyed my resume session with Mikhail. His process is very thorough and collaborative, starting with understanding your background and career goals before creating a new version of the resume and incorporating your feedback along the way. Great care was taken with every line of the resume to clearly frame the impact employers are looking for. He also took the time to answer all of my questions while providing thoughtful feedback on my job search approach. Throughout the process, he remained fully invested in helping me succeed and consistently went above and beyond to ensure I’m in the best position to land my next role.”
Oscar

Oscar

Session

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