Learning track 03
System Design, fresher to architect
Twelve modules from interview frameworks to cloud-native production. StreamHub grows with every chapter — one platform, every building block, every classic product design.
- Articles
- 60
- Modules
- 12
- Total read
- 12 hr 45 min
- Streak
- 0 days
Start here
The System Design Interview Framework
01
Interview Mindset
Framework, requirements, estimation and trade-offs
0/4
- The System Design Interview FrameworkA four-step structure that keeps every answer clear, scoped and interview-ready from the first minute.
- Functional vs Non-Functional RequirementsSeparate what the system must do from how well it must do it — latency, scale, consistency and cost.
- Back-of-the-Envelope EstimationTurn DAU and payload sizes into QPS, storage and server counts using numbers you can do in your head.
- Trade-offs and Common MistakesHow to compare design options honestly and avoid the traps that sink most interview answers.
02
Scale Journey
Performance, scaling strategies and the zero-to-millions path
0/3
- Performance vs ScalabilityWhy a fast system on one machine is not the same as a system that survives ten million users.
- Vertical vs Horizontal ScalingScale up, scale out, and know when each approach stops working.
- Zero to Millions of UsersFollow StreamHub from one server to CDN, cache, queues and sharded databases as traffic grows.
03
Traffic & Networking
DNS, protocols, load balancing, CDN and real-time channels
0/6
- DNS FundamentalsHow a domain name becomes an IP address and why DNS matters at every layer of scale.
- Network ProtocolsTCP, UDP, HTTP and TLS — the transport stack every distributed system sits on.
- Load BalancersSpread traffic across servers with L4/L7 balancers, health checks and sticky sessions.
- Proxy vs Reverse ProxyForward proxies hide clients; reverse proxies protect servers — and both show up in real architectures.
- Content Delivery NetworkPush static assets to edge locations so users worldwide get millisecond load times.
- WebSocket and Real-Time CommunicationPersistent connections for chat, live feeds and notifications when polling is too slow.
04
Data Foundations
CAP, database choice, replication, sharding and hashing
0/5
- CAP Theorem and PACELCWhy you cannot have perfect consistency, availability and partition tolerance at once.
- SQL vs NoSQLRelational rigour versus document, wide-column and key-value flexibility — and when each wins.
- Choosing the Right DatabaseA decision framework for picking Postgres, DynamoDB, Cassandra or Redis for your workload.
- Replication and ShardingMaster-replica reads, partition keys and the trade-offs of splitting data across nodes.
- Consistent HashingAdd or remove cache nodes without remapping every key — the ring that powers distributed caches.
05
Caching & Throttling
Cache patterns, distributed cache, rate limits and idempotency
0/4
- Caching StrategiesCache-aside, write-through and TTL policies that turn slow reads into millisecond responses.
- Distributed Cache Deep DiveRedis clusters, eviction policies, hot keys and cache stampede prevention at scale.
- Rate Limiter DesignToken bucket, sliding window and distributed counters that protect APIs from abuse.
- Idempotency PatternsSafe retries with idempotency keys so duplicate requests never double-charge or double-send.
06
Async & Messaging
Queues, Kafka, events, webhooks and the building-blocks map
0/5
- Message Queues FundamentalsDecouple producers and consumers with durable queues, acknowledgements and back-pressure.
- RabbitMQ and Kafka PatternsPoint-to-point versus log-based messaging — when to pick each and how to configure them.
- Event-Driven ArchitecturePublish events, react asynchronously and build systems that scale by adding consumers.
- Webhooks and Async CallbacksNotify external systems reliably with signed payloads, retries and delivery guarantees.
- System Design Building Blocks MapThe complete toolbox — DNS, LB, cache, DB, queue, CDN — and how they connect in every design.
07
API Design
REST, GraphQL, gRPC and tech-stack decisions
0/3
- REST API Design for SystemsResource naming, pagination, versioning and error contracts that survive millions of calls.
- GraphQL vs REST vs gRPCThree API styles, three trade-off profiles — pick the right one for your clients and latency budget.
- Choosing Your Tech StackLanguage, database, cache and queue choices framed by team skill, scale and operational cost.
08
Component Designs
IDs, URL shortener, KV store, notifications and message queues
0/5
- Unique ID GeneratorUUID, auto-increment, Snowflake and Twitter IDs — generate billions of unique keys without collisions.
- URL ShortenerHash long URLs, serve redirects at scale and handle billions of clicks with cache and sharding.
- Key-Value StoreDesign a distributed KV store with partitioning, replication and tunable consistency.
- Notification SystemFan out push, email and SMS through queues, templates and user preference filters.
- Distributed Message QueueBuild a queue service with partitions, consumer groups and at-least-once delivery.
09
Classic Product HLD
Chat, feeds, search, video, e-commerce and booking systems
0/7
- Chat System DesignOne-to-one and group messaging with WebSockets, message storage and delivery receipts.
- News Feed DesignPull versus push fan-out, ranking and the hot-path optimisations behind Twitter and Facebook feeds.
- Search AutocompleteTrie-based prefix lookup, ranking signals and serving suggestions at typing speed.
- Web Crawler DesignDiscover, fetch and index billions of pages with politeness, deduplication and distributed workers.
- Video Streaming PlatformUpload, transcode, CDN delivery and adaptive bitrate playback for YouTube-scale video.
- E-Commerce PlatformCatalog, cart, checkout, inventory and order fulfilment for an Amazon-scale marketplace.
- Hotel Reservation SystemSearch, booking, payment holds and inventory locks for an Airbnb-style platform.
10
Maps, Storage & Location
Geospatial, proximity, file storage and object stores
0/5
- Google Maps and Geospatial SystemsTile rendering, routing graphs and geospatial indexes for location-aware applications.
- Proximity Service (Uber)Match riders to nearby drivers in real time using geohash grids and streaming location updates.
- Google Drive File StorageChunked uploads, metadata indexing, sync and sharing for cloud file storage at scale.
- S3 Object StorageDesign blob storage with durability, versioning, lifecycle policies and multipart uploads.
- Nearby Friends LocationContinuous location sharing with privacy controls and efficient geospatial queries.
11
Cloud-Native Production
Kubernetes, mesh, multi-region, observability, security and FinOps
0/6
- Kubernetes Deployment PatternsPods, services, ingress, HPA and rolling updates for stateless microservices on K8s.
- Service MeshSidecar proxies for mTLS, retries, circuit breaking and observability without app changes.
- Multi-Region ArchitectureActive-active regions, data replication lag and routing users to the nearest healthy cluster.
- Observability StackMetrics, logs, traces, SLOs and error budgets with OpenTelemetry and modern dashboards.
- Security Defence in DepthOAuth2, OIDC, mTLS, WAF and zero-trust layers that protect APIs at every boundary.
- Cost Optimization and FinOpsRight-size instances, spot capacity, storage tiers and the metrics that keep cloud bills predictable.
12
Architect-Level & AI
CQRS, cells, SaaS, migrations, RAG, ML inference and payments
0/7
- CQRS and Event SourcingSeparate read and write models with an append-only event log as the source of truth.
- Cell-Based ArchitectureIsolate failure domains into cells so one outage cannot take down the entire platform.
- Multi-Tenant SaaSShared infrastructure with tenant isolation — schema-per-tenant, row-level security and noisy-neighbour control.
- Database Migration at ScaleZero-downtime schema changes, dual writes and backfill strategies for live production data.
- RAG and Vector Search PlatformEmbed documents, retrieve relevant chunks and generate answers with retrieval-augmented generation.
- ML Inference ServingModel registries, GPU autoscaling, A/B routing and latency budgets for production ML.
- Payment and Fintech SystemsLedger accounting, idempotent payments, PCI boundaries and reconciliation at fintech scale.