Testing Intelligence

Prompt

*(Architecture and reasoning only — no code, no pseudocode. Explain your design decisions, trade-offs, and the "why" behind each choice.)* Design a ride-hailing dispatch system with these requirements: - 5M concurrent riders across 200 cities, sub-200ms driver-matching latency - Every rider must see a globally consistent, real-time view of nearby driver availability - The system must stay fully available and accept ride requests even during a regional data center outage, with zero double-bookings of the same driver - Drivers' locations update every 2 seconds; matching must always use the most current location - Walk through your data model, matching algorithm, and failure-handling strategy at a conceptual level **Then, mid-design, answer this:** leadership cuts your infrastructure budget by 60% one month before launch. Which of your original guarantees do you break, and why is that the *right* one to break rather than the others?