My attempt to solve a quite interesting challenge, put in our team's Notion Page 😄. I'll just copy-paste the full challenge here:
We'd like you to design a system that lets us calculate the optimal cost of travel between two stations, with a tariff of 10 cents/stop. For example, the cost between Noord and Centraal Station is 20 cents (2 stops on the blue line). The cost between Noord and Nieuwmarkt is 30 cents (2 stops on the blue line, 1 stop on 51, 54 or 53)
Here are some aspects we'd like you to touch upon:
- How would we store the data? What kind of domain concepts do you see, how do they map to entities and what are the relationships between them?
- What is the first test you would write?
- If we introduce a cost to switching lines, how would that affect your design?
- The Bijlmer ArenA is an important business centre, so many people flock there at 9 in the morning. Do you think your design needs to be adjusted to allow for that? Why? If yes, how?
- Please ignore other aspects of the real-life scenario — trains, timetables, waiting time, etc.