System Design Interview: Analytics Platform (ClickHouse / Snowflake Scale)
Analytics vs Transactional Systems OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) systems like PostgreSQL are optimized for short, frequent reads and writes to […]
System Design
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.
System Design
System Design Interview: API Gateway (Kong / AWS API Gateway)
What Is an API Gateway? An API gateway is the single entry point for all client requests to a microservices
System Design
System Design Interview: Recommendation System (Netflix / Spotify)
Why Recommendations Matter Netflix reports that 80% of content watched is discovered through recommendations. Spotify generates 30% of its streams
System Design
System Design Interview: Hotel Booking System (Airbnb / Booking.com)
Problem Overview Design a hotel or short-term rental booking system like Airbnb or Booking.com. Users search for available properties in
System Design
System Design Interview: Payment Processing System (Stripe / PayPal)
Why Payment Systems Are Hard Payment systems are among the hardest distributed systems to design because money movement requires exactly-once
System Design
System Design Interview: Location-Based Service (Yelp / Google Maps)
Problem Overview Design a location-based service that allows users to find nearby businesses (Yelp) or navigate between locations (Google Maps).
System Design
System Design Interview: File Storage Service (Dropbox / Google Drive)
Problem Overview Design a file storage and sync service like Dropbox or Google Drive. Users can upload files up to
System Design
System Design Interview: Web Crawler (Google Search Indexing)
What Is a Web Crawler? A web crawler (spider) systematically browses the web, downloading pages and extracting links to discover
System Design
System Design Interview: Content Delivery Network (CDN)
What Is a CDN? A Content Delivery Network is a globally distributed network of servers (Points of Presence, or PoPs)
System Design
System Design Interview: Real-Time Collaboration (Google Docs)
The Core Challenge Real-time collaborative editing requires multiple users to edit the same document simultaneously and see each other changes
System Design
System Design Interview: Search Autocomplete / Typeahead (2025)
What Is a Typeahead System? A typeahead (search autocomplete) system returns a ranked list of query completions as the user
System Design
System Design Interview: Gaming Leaderboard and Matchmaking System
Problem Overview Design a leaderboard and matchmaking system for a multiplayer game with 50 million players. The leaderboard shows global
System Design
System Design Interview: IoT Platform (Connected Devices at Scale)
IoT system design is increasingly common at Amazon (AWS IoT), Google (Cloud IoT), Tesla, Nest, and any company building connected
System Design
System Design Interview: Ad Serving System (Google Ads / Meta Ads)
Ad serving is at the core of Google and Meta businesses and is one of the highest-stakes systems in the
System Design
System Design Interview: Food Delivery App (DoorDash / UberEats)
Food delivery is a three-sided marketplace connecting customers, restaurants, and delivery drivers — more complex than ride-sharing because orders involve