What interviewers want when they say design a rate limiter
7 min read A walkthrough of the rate limiter system design question, from scoping the limit to the distributed counter problem that trips most candidates up. Read article
System Design
System Design
The caching patterns worth knowing cold for a system design round
6 min read A quick reference to the read and write caching patterns, eviction policies, invalidation, and stampede fixes that come up in system design interviews. Read article
System Design
Where caching helps your system design and where it bites
7 min read How to reason about cache-aside, write-through, invalidation, and cache stampedes when an interviewer keeps pushing on your design. Read article
System Design
How rate limiters actually work when you have more than one server
8 min read A single-server rate limiter is a hash map and a timer; the real interview starts when you add a second server and need one shared, race-free counter. Read article
