IH
Interview Helpers

DOCS · FEATURES

System Design Mode

Get a complete architecture answer with rendered Mermaid diagrams — flowchart, sequence, and ER data model — inline in the chat. No external whiteboard tool needed.

How to use it

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + S to turn the mode on. A blue SYSTEM DESIGN badge appears in the title bar.
  2. Have the question visible on your screen.
  3. Press Ctrl + 1 to send the screenshot.
  4. Press Ctrl + Shift + S again to switch back to normal coding mode.

Tips

  • System Design responses are intentionally longer than coding answers — give them ~5–10 seconds to fully render. Diagrams render after the streaming text settles.
  • If the diagram fails to render, the raw chart text is shown in red — the parser catches most malformed Mermaid automatically, but very unusual syntax may slip through. Hit Esc and re-ask.
  • Use a follow-up question (typed in the input box) to drill into a specific component: "explain the cache invalidation strategy" or "walk me through how the write path handles a partition split."

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