System Design
Clarify Requirements
Before diving into the design, ensure that you clearly understand the problem and the
requirements.
Functional Requirements:
o What does the system need to do?
o What are the inputs, outputs, and features?
o Are there any specific workflows or processes to handle?
Non-functional Requirements:
o Scale: How many users or requests should the system handle (e.g., thousands,
millions)?
o Latency: Are there any strict latency or response time requirements?
o Consistency: Is it critical to have strong consistency, or can the system tolerate
eventual consistency?
o Availability: What uptime is required (e.g., 99.9%, 99.99%)?
o Durability: How long do you need to retain data?
o Security: Are there specific security or compliance requirements (e.g., encryption,
access control)?
o Cost: Are there any constraints on the cost of infrastructure?
Tip: Engage the interviewer and ask questions to clarify any ambiguity or edge cases.
2. Define System Constraints
Identify potential constraints and limitations, such as:
Throughput: How many requests per second should the system handle?
Storage: How much data will need to be stored? How will you handle data growth?
Latency: Is there a strict limit on the response time?
Traffic patterns: Is traffic expected to be bursty or evenly distributed?
Scaling: Does the system need to scale horizontally (adding more instances) or vertically
(adding more resources to instances)?
3. High-Level System Overview
Once the requirements and constraints are clear, provide a high-level overview of the
system's architecture.
Components: Identify major components such as:
o Frontend (UI)
o Backend (APIs, services)
o Databases (SQL, NoSQL)
o Caching (Redis, Memcached)
o Load balancers
o Message queues (e.g., RabbitMQ, Kafka)
o CDN (Content Delivery Network) for static content
Diagram: Drawing a simple system diagram helps to visualize components and their
interactions. This can include:
o Client-side (browser, mobile apps)
o Application servers
o Databases
o Caching layers
o Load balancers
o External services (e.g., third-party APIs)
Tip: Start broad and work your way into the specific components.
4. Dive into Specific Components
Now break down each component of the system in detail.
Storage Layer:
Database: Will you use a relational (SQL) or non-relational (NoSQL) database?
o Relational: Choose SQL for strict ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability)
compliance, such as in banking systems.
o NoSQL: Opt for NoSQL (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra) if you need to handle massive
amounts of data with high write speeds and flexible schemas.
Indexing: Discuss whether you’ll use indexes for efficient querying.
Sharding/Partitioning: How will you distribute data across multiple databases or nodes to
handle scale?
Caching Layer:
Discuss caching strategies (in-memory databases like Redis or Memcached) to reduce
database load and improve response times.
Cache Invalidation: How will you keep cache data up-to-date?
API Layer:
Define RESTful or gRPC APIs for communication.
How will you manage versioning of APIs?
Message Queue:
Use message queues like Kafka, RabbitMQ, or AWS SQS for handling asynchronous tasks.
Explain how queues help decouple services and smooth traffic spikes.
Load Balancing:
Use load balancers (e.g., AWS ELB, Nginx) to distribute traffic across multiple instances.
Explain how you will ensure high availability through auto-scaling and health checks.
Scaling:
Horizontal Scaling: Add more servers as load increases.
Vertical Scaling: Increase resources (CPU, memory) on existing servers.
Stateless Services: Design services to be stateless so that scaling horizontally is easier.
5. Consider Trade-offs
Most decisions in system design involve trade-offs between competing priorities. Be sure to
discuss these trade-offs:
Consistency vs. Availability: Would you prefer strong consistency (e.g., in banking
transactions) or high availability with eventual consistency (e.g., social media likes)?
Latency vs. Durability: Will you sacrifice a little latency to ensure that data is stored reliably?
Cost vs. Performance: Can you afford to use more expensive infrastructure for lower
latency, or would you opt for a cheaper solution with potentially slower performance?
6. Discuss Fault Tolerance & Resilience
Consider how your system will handle failures and maintain availability.
Redundancy: Keep multiple instances of key services to avoid single points of failure.
Replication: Replicate data across regions or data centers for durability and availability.
Graceful Degradation: If part of the system fails, can it continue to work in a degraded
mode?
Health Monitoring & Alerts: Use tools like CloudWatch, Prometheus, or Datadog to monitor
system health and set up alerts for failures.
7. Plan for Scaling and Growth
Explain how the system can handle increased traffic or data growth over time.
Auto-scaling: Use services like AWS Auto Scaling or Kubernetes to dynamically scale your
instances based on traffic.
Sharding & Partitioning: Distribute data across multiple nodes to prevent database
bottlenecks.
CDN: Use a CDN (e.g., CloudFront, Akamai) to distribute static content closer to users and
reduce server load.
8. Security Considerations
Don’t forget to include security aspects:
Authentication & Authorization: Implement OAuth, JWT, or session-based authentication.
Data Encryption: Ensure data is encrypted both at rest (e.g., AES-256) and in transit (e.g.,
HTTPS/TLS).
Access Control: Implement role-based access control (RBAC) for sensitive operations.
DDOS Mitigation: Use AWS Shield or Cloudflare for DDOS protection.
9. Summarize Your Solution
After discussing the details, give a brief summary of your proposed design:
Key components and how they interact.
How you meet the functional and non-functional requirements.
Trade-offs you made and why.
How your design will scale and handle failure.
