Master System Design
Ace your next senior engineering interview. We break down exactly how the world's largest companies scale their databases, caches, and APIs to handle billions of users.
How WhatsApp Works: Architecture & Database Design
WhatsApp handles over 100 billion messages per day. To do this, it requires a highly scalable architecture focused on low latency and high availability. This guide breaks down the core concepts behind WhatsApp's real-time messaging system.
How Netflix Works: CDN & Microservices Architecture
Netflix serves billions of hours of streaming video globally. It utilizes AWS for computing and its own Open Connect CDN for video delivery, shifting towards an event-driven microservices architecture.
How YouTube Works: Video Transcoding & Storage
YouTube ingests hundreds of hours of video every minute. The architecture involves massive blob storage, distributed transcoding pipelines, and a highly optimized CDN.
How Uber Works: Geospatial Querying & Dispatching
Uber's core challenge is matching riders with drivers in real-time while processing high-velocity GPS updates.
How to Design a URL Shortener (Bitly)
A classic system design interview question. The goal is to take a long URL, generate a unique short alias, and redirect users quickly when they visit the short alias.
How Payment Gateways Work (Stripe)
Payment systems prioritize consistency (CP in CAP theorem) over availability. You cannot afford to lose a transaction or charge a user twice.