Terms of Service

The Short Version

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of prismhld.com and all associated services (collectively, "PRISM") operated by PRISM, Bangalore, India ("we", "us", "our"). Please read them carefully. By creating an account or using PRISM you agree to be bound by these Terms.

Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using PRISM in any way, including browsing the website, creating an account, running a simulation, or submitting an evaluation, you confirm that:

• You are at least 18 years of age, or you are 16 or 17 and a parent or guardian has agreed to these Terms on your behalf. PRISM is not for anyone under 16.
• You have read and agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy.
• If you are accepting on behalf of an organisation, you have authority to bind that organisation to these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use PRISM.

Description of Service

PRISM is an interactive system design simulator that allows users to:

• Build distributed system architectures on an interactive canvas
• Run traffic simulations and observe latency, error rates, and bottlenecks
• Complete guided learning modules and roadmap topics
• Take mock system design interviews with AI-generated MCQs and trade-off analysis
• Diagnose and fix broken production systems in Design & Fix incidents
• Earn hint points, XP and streaks through daily missions and accepted solutions
• Discuss problems with other users and raise support tickets
• Track evaluation history and scores over time

We offer a free plan and paid plans. Feature availability varies by plan. We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature or the service as a whole with reasonable notice where practical.

Accounts & Access

Registration: Some features require a registered account. You agree to provide accurate information during registration and to keep it up to date.

Credentials: You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us immediately at [email protected] or through the Support page if you suspect unauthorised access.

One account per person: You may not create multiple accounts to circumvent usage limits or other restrictions.

OAuth sign-in: If you use Google or GitHub to authenticate, those providers' terms also apply. We receive only the minimum necessary profile data (name, email) from them.

Sharing: Paid plans are for individual use. You may not share login credentials or plan benefits with others.

Welcome trial: New accounts can get a free trial of Pro once per account, after answering a few onboarding questions. It lasts 7 days unless a promo code you redeem says otherwise, needs no payment details, and ends by itself: your account then returns to the free Explorer plan.

Promo and referral codes: Codes are for the person they were given to, can be redeemed once per account, and have no cash value. They may be limited in number, expire, or be withdrawn at any time. Codes may not be sold or traded, and benefits obtained through misuse (for example by creating extra accounts) may be removed.

Acceptable Use

You agree not to use PRISM to:

• Violate any applicable law or regulation
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any system, network, or data
• Scrape, crawl, or systematically extract data from PRISM using automated means without prior written permission
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or otherwise attempt to extract the source code or AI model weights underlying PRISM
• Overload or stress PRISM's infrastructure beyond normal usage (excessive API abuse, denial-of-service)
• Upload or transmit viruses, malware, or any harmful code
• Harass, threaten, or harm other users
• Use the platform in ways that violate the rights of third parties
• Disguise your location (for example with a VPN or proxy) to obtain a regional price you are not eligible for
• Use scripts, bots or multiple accounts to earn hint points, XP, streaks or other rewards

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate access without notice for material violations of this section.

Community, Sharing & Support

Discussions: Learn and Practice problems have discussion threads where signed-in users can post, reply and vote. What you post there, together with your username, is visible to other users of PRISM.

Your responsibility: You are responsible for what you post. Do not post content that is unlawful, abusive, hateful, sexually explicit, spam or advertising; personal data about other people; or material you have no right to share, including interview questions or other information you are bound to keep confidential.

Licence: You keep ownership of your posts. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display and distribute them within PRISM for as long as they remain on the service. If you delete a post or your account, we stop displaying it.

Moderation: We may edit, hide or remove any post, and restrict anyone's ability to post, if we believe it breaks these Terms. We do not review posts before they appear and are not responsible for content posted by other users. To report a post, raise a ticket on our Support page.

Gallery and share links: Designs you publish to the gallery, and reviews you write, are visible to other users until you unpublish or delete them. A stress test report's share link lets anyone who has the link view the report until you delete it, so share it with care. The licence and rules above apply to these too.

Live sessions: Live interviews and peer design sessions connect you with other users by camera and/or microphone. Behave as you would in a professional interview. Do not record, capture or share another participant's audio, video or image without their consent. We do not record sessions and are not responsible for what other participants do.

Support tickets: You can contact us through the Support page, signed in or not. Replies appear in your notification bell when you are signed in. Please do not include passwords or payment card details in a ticket.

Hint Points & Rewards

PRISM awards hint points, XP, streaks and other rewards for activity such as daily check-ins, completed missions and accepted solutions. Hint points can be spent to unlock hints; a hint you unlock stays unlocked for your account.

• Rewards have no cash value. They cannot be bought, sold, transferred between accounts, or exchanged for money, plans or anything outside PRISM.
• We may change how rewards are earned or spent, and how many points a hint costs, at any time.
• We may correct balances that are wrong because of an error, and remove rewards obtained by breaking these Terms.
• Unused rewards are lost if your account is deleted or terminated.

Intellectual Property

PRISM content: The PRISM platform — including the simulation engine, rule system, scoring models, UI, branding, and all software — is owned by us and protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may not copy, distribute, or create derivative works from our platform without written permission.

Your content: The canvas designs, evaluation answers, and feedback you create remain yours. By using PRISM, you grant us a limited licence to store, process, and display your content solely to operate the service and to send relevant data to our AI provider (OpenAI) to generate features you request.

Feedback: Any suggestions, ideas, or feedback you submit may be used by us to improve the product without compensation or attribution.

Real companies in scenarios: Some problems and Design & Fix incidents are inspired by publicly known products or events and name the companies involved. These scenarios are simplified and illustrative, not accounts of how those companies' systems actually work. PRISM is not affiliated with or endorsed by them, and their names and trademarks belong to their owners.

AI-Generated Content

PRISM uses OpenAI's API to generate MCQ questions, evaluate trade-off answers, provide design feedback, and power other AI features. By using these features, you acknowledge:

• AI-generated content is provided for educational purposes only and may contain inaccuracies or omissions.
• Outputs should not be relied upon as professional advice (technical, legal, financial, or otherwise).
• Your inputs (canvas graphs, evaluation responses) are sent to OpenAI's servers and processed subject to their Usage Policies.
• We do not guarantee any particular quality, accuracy, or availability of AI-generated content.

We disclaim all warranties regarding AI-generated content to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Payments & Plans

Billing: Paid plans are billed via Razorpay. By purchasing a plan, you authorise us (via Razorpay) to charge your payment method for the applicable fees.

Prices and currency: Prices are shown and charged in the currency for your country, which we determine from your internet connection; countries without their own price list pay in US dollars. The price shown at checkout is the price you pay. Your bank or card issuer may add its own currency conversion or foreign transaction fees.

Taxes: Prices include any taxes we are required to charge.

Delivery: PRISM is a digital service and nothing is shipped. Your plan, pass or bundle is activated on your account as soon as the payment is confirmed. If a successful payment has not been applied within 24 hours, contact us and we will apply or refund it.

One-time payment, no auto-renewal: Each paid plan is a single payment for the period you choose (for example Interview Ready for 14 days, or 1 or 3 months). Plans never renew automatically, and you are only charged again if you choose to buy again.

Changing plans: While a paid plan is active you may upgrade to a higher plan. You cannot downgrade to a lower paid plan or switch sideways until your current plan's validity period has ended.

Cancellation: You may cancel a paid plan at any time. Cancellation never ends a plan early: you keep full access to your plan until the end of its validity period. From then on the plan does not continue and your account returns to the free Explorer plan. Cancelling does not entitle you to a refund for the remaining period.

Plan expiry: When a plan's validity period ends, whether or not you cancelled, your account moves to the free Explorer plan. Your designs and history are kept; features and limits change to those of the free plan.

Refunds: Paid plans come with a 7-day refund guarantee, once per account: if you request it within 7 days of purchase and have used 2 or fewer AI mock interviews since, you get a full refund from Plan & billing, and your account returns to the free Explorer plan. After that, payments are non-refundable, including for any unused part of a plan's validity period, except where required by applicable consumer protection law. Interview bundles are one-time purchases that never expire and are not covered by the 7-day guarantee. If you believe you were charged in error, contact us at [email protected] within 14 days of the charge. Approved refunds go back to the original payment method through Razorpay; banks usually take 5–7 working days to show them.

Chargebacks: Please contact us before disputing a payment with your bank. If a payment is reversed or charged back, the plan or credits it paid for are removed.

Free plan limits: The free plan is subject to usage limits (simulations per month, evaluation runs, etc.) which may change. We will provide reasonable notice of material limit reductions.

Price changes: We may change plan prices at any time. A price change never affects a plan you have already paid for; it applies only to purchases made after the change.

Disclaimers

PRISM is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or uninterrupted availability.

We do not warrant that:

• The service will be error-free or available at all times
• Simulation results accurately reflect real-world system behaviour
• AI-generated assessments are a reliable predictor of actual interview performance
• The platform is free from security vulnerabilities

Using PRISM to prepare for technical interviews does not guarantee interview success.

Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, PRISM and its operators shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of data, loss of revenue, or lost opportunity, arising out of or related to your use of the service.

Our total cumulative liability to you for any claim arising under these Terms shall not exceed the greater of: (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) USD $50.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain liability exclusions. In those cases, our liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless PRISM and its operators from any claims, losses, damages and costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising from content you post, publish or share, your misuse of PRISM, or your breach of these Terms or of anyone else's rights.

Third-Party Services

PRISM relies on and links to services we do not control, including Razorpay, OpenAI, Google, GitHub and the analytics providers listed in our Privacy Policy. Their own terms apply to your use of them, and we are not responsible for their availability, content or practices.

Termination

By you: You may stop using PRISM at any time. To delete your account, email [email protected] from the address on your account or raise a ticket on our Support page; we will delete it and handle your data as described in our Privacy Policy. Deleting your account ends any active plan without a refund, except under the 7-day refund guarantee.

By us: We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially breach these Terms, engage in abusive behaviour, or if we discontinue the service. We will provide reasonable notice where feasible.

Provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (IP, licences you granted, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity, governing law) will do so.

Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising out of these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in Bangalore (Bengaluru), Karnataka, India.

If you are using PRISM from outside India, you do so voluntarily and are responsible for compliance with local laws.

Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms at any time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify registered users by email or in-app notice.

Your continued use of PRISM after changes become effective constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you disagree with the changes, your remedy is to stop using the service and delete your account.

General

• Entire agreement: These Terms and our Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about PRISM.
• Severability: If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
• No waiver: Not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment: You may not transfer your account or these Terms. We may transfer them as part of a sale, merger or reorganisation of PRISM.
• Events beyond our control: We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as outages of our providers, network failures or natural events.

Contact

Questions or complaints about these Terms or PRISM? Reach out. Grievances are handled by our Grievance Officer as described in the Privacy Policy.

Operator: PRISM, Bangalore, India
Support: prismhld.com/support
Email: [email protected]
Website: prismhld.com/contact