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Hotel Keycard System Design

AmazonProduct Manager · Onsite
MediumProduct ManagerOnsiteProduct / Decision Making

Last updated

Practice a hotel keycard product and system design interview that covers guest experience, access control, offline validation, cryptographic credential handling, revocation, audit logs, integrations, security threats, and hotel operational failure modes.

Question

A hotel that previously used traditional metal keys wants to switch to electronic keycards.

Explain the strategic and customer-driven reasons for replacing metal keys with keycards. Address benefits for guests, hotel staff, and the business.

Define the must-have features of the end-to-end solution (e.g., check-in experience, lost-card flow, access controls, auditing, integration with loyalty or mobile apps).

Describe a high-level system architecture that links keycards, door locks, on-premise or cloud servers, and hotel management software. Include how the card and lock validate each other.

Propose security measures to reduce both physical and network-based attacks (e.g., brute-force entry, card cloning, packet interception).

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Hints

Think about operational efficiency (e.g., self-service kiosks, faster room turnover).

Consider cryptographic approaches (public/private keys, rolling codes, time-bound credentials).

Address failure modes: power outage, server downtime, or a card being swiped multiple times.