Distributed Lock System Low-Level Design
Why Distributed Locks? In a distributed system, multiple servers run the same code concurrently. A distributed lock ensures only one […]
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System Design
Learn to design scalable, reliable systems that handle millions of users. System design interviews test your ability to architect real-world applications, considering tradeoffs, scalability, and best practices.
Core Topics:
Scalability: Load balancing, horizontal vs vertical scaling
Storage: Databases (SQL vs NoSQL), caching (Redis, Memcached)
Reliability: Replication, failover, disaster recovery
Performance: CDNs, caching strategies, database indexing
Common Design Questions:
Design URL shortener (bit.ly)
Design rate limiter
Design Twitter/Instagram feed
Design messaging system (WhatsApp)
Design file storage (Dropbox)
Interview Level: Senior engineers (L5+) at FAANG companies. Requires 3-5+ years experience to tackle effectively.
Preparation: Study system design patterns, understand distributed systems fundamentals, and practice mock interviews.
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Event Ticketing System Low-Level Design
Requirements Users can browse events, select seats from a seat map, reserve seats, and complete payment Prevent double-booking: no two
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Messaging System (Chat) Low-Level Design
Requirements One-on-one messaging and group chats (up to 500 members) Real-time message delivery (< 100ms), offline message storage, read receipts
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Content Delivery Network (CDN) Low-Level Design
What a CDN Does A Content Delivery Network caches content at edge Points of Presence (PoPs) geographically close to users,
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Video Streaming Platform (YouTube/Netflix) Low-Level Design
Upload Pipeline Raw video upload → object storage (S3 raw bucket) → message published to transcoding queue (SQS/Kafka) → transcoding
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File Storage System (Google Drive / Dropbox) Low-Level Design
Requirements Design a file storage system like Google Drive or Dropbox supporting: Upload and download files up to 50 GB
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Ride-Sharing App (Uber/Lyft) High-Level System Design
Core Services A ride-sharing platform like Uber or Lyft decomposes into focused microservices: Location Service: ingests driver GPS pings, maintains
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Social Graph System Low-Level Design
Two Graph Models The first design decision is the relationship model: Directed graph (Twitter/Instagram follow): A follows B does not
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Typeahead Search (Autocomplete) System Low-Level Design
Typeahead search (also called autocomplete) is one of the most latency-sensitive features in a modern product. Users expect suggestions to
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E-Commerce Platform Low-Level Design
An e-commerce platform touches nearly every backend concept that appears in system design interviews: relational data modeling, inventory consistency, distributed
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Proximity Service (Find Nearby) Low-Level Design
A proximity service answers “find all restaurants / drivers / users within R km of this location” with low latency
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Ticket Booking System Low-Level Design
A ticket booking system like Ticketmaster must handle concurrent seat selection, hold expiry, payment confirmation, and flash sale traffic spikes.
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Gaming Leaderboard System Low-Level Design
Requirements A gaming leaderboard system must support: Update a player’s score in real-time (on match completion) Query a player’s current
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Search Engine System Low-Level Design
Overview A search engine has four major subsystems working in a pipeline: a web crawler fetches pages from the internet,
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Live Video Streaming System Low-Level Design
Requirements Design a live video streaming platform comparable to Twitch or YouTube Live. Key requirements: support millions of concurrent viewers