How would you clarify the requirements for this audiobook recommendation prompt before starting to code? The setting is a roughly 30-minute interview slot after behaviorals, so I'm also wondering whether the expectation is low-level design (LLD) rather than just an algorithm.
Prompt: Audiobook Recommendation System
Given a log of "audiobook completed" events, write code to implement an audiobook recommendation system. It should answer "What should I listen to next?" based on the listening patterns in the log.
For example, if many customers listened to BookA followed by BookB, then given BookA as input, the recommendation system should return BookB.
python
logs = """
2025-08-09T03:25:11Z,Customer1,BookA
2025-08-09T04:10:50Z,Customer2,BookB
2025-08-09T12:01:24Z,Customer2,BookC
2025-08-09T15:33:49Z,Customer3,BookB
2025-08-10T07:54:35Z,Customer1,BookB
2025-08-10T08:00:08Z,Customer4,BookD
2025-08-10T11:29:31Z,Customer3,BookE
2025-08-10T23:45:00Z,Customer5,BookF
2025-08-10T23:51:20Z,Customer6,BookB
2025-08-11T09:05:16Z,Customer1,BookC
2025-08-11T20:12:57Z,Customer3,BookA
2025-08-11T20:59:32Z,Customer7,BookB
2025-08-11T21:00:13Z,Customer2,BookB
2025-08-12T05:17:23Z,Customer1,BookB
2025-08-12T18:19:07Z,Customer1,BookC
2025-08-12T22:22:42Z,Customer5,BookE
2025-08-13T00:07:58Z,Customer7,BookG
2025-08-13T04:02:29Z,Customer6,BookE
2025-08-14T21:12:33Z,Customer3,BookG
2025-08-14T23:49:00Z,Customer1,BookF
2025-08-15T12:00:01Z,Customer3,BookC
"""
What I'm most interested in is the requirements discussion. "BookA followed by BookB" could mean the very next completion for the same customer, or any later completion. Would you also ask whether repeated listens count multiple times, whether to rank by events or distinct customers, and how ties or books with no follow-up should work?
Which questions would you prioritize within that time limit, and what implementation scope would you agree on before coding?