Rate limiting is a critical building block in modern distributed systems. Almost every large-scale system, whether it is an API platform, social network, payment gateway, or SaaS product, relies on rate limiting to protect itself from abuse, ensure fair usage, and control infrastructure costs. In this blog, we will design a scalable, distributed rate limiter, […]
Design a Rate Limiter Read More »
Design a News Feed / Social Media Feed System A News Feed system is the backbone of every modern social platform—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, LinkedIn. It decides what content a user sees, in what order, and how fast. From a system design perspective, this is one of the hardest problems because it combines massive scale, low
Design a scalable (News Feed) Social Media Feed system Read More »
Notification systems are a critical infrastructure component for modern applications. Whether it is an OTP SMS, an order confirmation email, a push notification for a social update, or an internal system alert, notifications form the bridge between backend systems and end users. At small scale, sending notifications may appear trivial. However, at scale—where millions of
Designing a Scalable Notification System Read More »
Designing a URL shortener looks simple on the surface—but at scale, it becomes a classic distributed systems problem involving performance, scalability, caching, databases, and trade-offs. In this post, we will design a production-grade URL shortener using a clear 14-step system design framework that you can reuse for any system design interview or real-world architecture discussion.
Designing a Scalable URL Shortener (TinyURL) Read More »
In distributed systems, multiple services run independently and communicate over unreliable networks.Coordinating actions across these services is challenging but essential for correctness and consistency. In this blog, we’ll explore distributed locks, leader election, and idempotency—three foundational coordination concepts. Why Coordination Is Hard Distributed systems face: Without coordination, systems may: Distributed Locks A distributed lock ensures
Distributed Coordination: Locks, Leader Election & Idempotency Read More »
As systems grow and move toward microservices, direct synchronous communication becomes a bottleneck.Event-driven architecture (EDA) helps systems scale by allowing services to communicate asynchronously using events and messages. In this blog, we’ll cover event-driven architecture, message queues vs event streams, and when to use each. Synchronous vs Asynchronous Communication Synchronous Communication Example:Service A calls Service
Event-Driven Architecture & Messaging Read More »
Choosing the right architecture is one of the most important decisions in system design.Two common approaches are monolithic architecture and microservices architecture. Each has its strengths, weaknesses, and ideal use cases. In this blog, we’ll clearly compare monoliths vs microservices, explain trade-offs, and help you decide when to use each. What Is a Monolithic Architecture?
Microservices vs Monolith Read More »
In large-scale systems, reads dominate writes.Users expect fast responses, whether they’re searching, scrolling feeds, or loading product pages. This is why indexing and read optimization are critical parts of system design. In this blog, we’ll cover how indexes work, their trade-offs, and how search systems optimize reads at scale. What Is an Index? An index
Indexing, Search & Read Optimization Read More »
As systems grow, data becomes the hardest part to scale.Choosing the right database model and scaling strategy directly impacts performance, availability, consistency, and cost. In this blog, we’ll go deeper into SQL vs NoSQL, sharding, and replication, covering all essential concepts needed for real-world system design and interviews. SQL vs NoSQL Databases SQL Databases (Relational)
SQL vs NoSQL, Sharding & Replication Read More »
As systems grow, performance and scalability become critical.Most real-world applications cannot rely on databases alone. This is where caching and proper storage choices play a key role in system design. In this blog, we’ll cover why caching is needed, how databases differ, and basic storage types—keeping it simple and practical. Why Caching Is Needed Databases
Caching, Databases & Storage Basics Read More »
