System Design Topics
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Design a URL Shortener
Focus: Unique key generation, collision handling, database choice, read-heavy scaling. -
Design a News Feed System
Focus: Pull vs push models, feed ranking, fan-out strategies, caching. -
Design a Chat/Messaging System (WhatsApp-like)
Focus: Real-time delivery, message ordering, offline handling, encryption. -
Design a Ride-Sharing System (Uber/Lyft)
Focus: Real-time matching, geo-indexing, dynamic pricing, driver/passenger updates. -
Design a Video Streaming Platform (YouTube/Netflix)
Focus: Video storage, transcoding, CDN delivery, adaptive bitrate streaming. -
Design an E-Commerce Platform
Focus: Product catalog, inventory, shopping cart, payment, recommendation system. -
Design a Ticket Booking System (IRCTC/BookMyShow)
Focus: Seat-locking, concurrency control, payment integration, failure recovery. -
Design a Search Autocomplete System
Focus: Trie/index structure, ranking, caching, typeahead latency optimization. -
Design a Distributed Caching System
Focus: Cache invalidation, consistency, eviction policies, replication. -
Design a Payment System (PayPal/UPI)
Focus: ACID transactions, fraud detection, idempotency, multi-gateway integration. -
Design a File Storage & Sharing System (Google Drive / Dropbox)
Focus: File chunking, replication, sync across devices, access control. -
Design a Logging & Monitoring System (ELK, Datadog)
Focus: Log ingestion, storage, indexing, real-time search, alerting. -
Design a Rate Limiter for APIs
Focus: Token bucket/leaky bucket algorithms, distributed counters, global vs per-user limits. -
Design a Food Delivery Platform (Zomato / DoorDash)
Focus: Order management, delivery assignment, live tracking, payment. -
Design a Real-Time Collaboration Tool (Google Docs)
Focus: Conflict resolution (OT/CRDT), presence tracking, version history, low latency updates. -
Design a Recommendation Engine (Netflix / Amazon)
Focus: Collaborative filtering, content-based recommendations, personalization, A/B testing. -
Design a Search Engine (Google Search / Elasticsearch)
Focus: Crawling, indexing, ranking, query optimization, caching. -
Design a Social Media Platform (Instagram / Facebook)
Focus: User profiles, content storage, news feed, notifications, scaling posts & media. -
Design a Multiplayer Game Backend
Focus: State synchronization, matchmaking, cheat prevention, low-latency networking. -
Design a Workflow Orchestration System (Airflow / Temporal)
Focus: DAG execution, retries, scheduling, state persistence, distributed coordination. -
Design an Online Learning Platform (Coursera / Udemy)
Focus: Video hosting, course structure, quizzes, progress tracking, recommendations. -
Design a CDN (Content Delivery Network)
Focus: Edge caching, geo-routing, replication strategies, cache invalidation. -
Design a Blockchain-Based System
Focus: Consensus algorithms, transaction validation, scalability, smart contracts. -
Design a Streaming Data Pipeline (Kafka / Flink)
Focus: Ingestion, exactly-once processing, partitioning, ordering guarantees. -
Design a Push Notification Service
Focus: Multi-platform delivery (APNS, FCM), retries, user targeting, batching. -
Design an IoT Device Management Platform
Focus: Device registration, telemetry ingestion, command dispatch, OTA updates. -
Design a Data Warehouse (Snowflake / BigQuery)
Focus: Columnar storage, OLAP queries, ETL/ELT pipelines, partitioning. -
Design a Fraud Detection System
Focus: Real-time anomaly detection, rule-based + ML models, feature engineering. -
Design a Document Search & Indexing System
Focus: Inverted indexes, ranking, stemming, fuzzy matching, relevance tuning. -
Design a Distributed Task Queue (Celery / Sidekiq)
Focus: Task scheduling, retries, dead-letter queues, worker scaling. -
Design an Email Service (Gmail / Outlook)
Focus: Email storage, indexing, spam filtering, IMAP/SMTP handling. -
Design a Calendar & Scheduling System (Google Calendar)
Focus: Event storage, recurring events, reminders, conflict detection, sharing. -
Design a Q&A Platform (Quora / Stack Overflow)
Focus: Question ranking, tagging, search, moderation, reputation system. -
Design an Online Polling & Voting System
Focus: Real-time results, vote verification, fraud prevention, anonymity. -
Design a Hotel Booking System (Booking.com / Agoda)
Focus: Room inventory management, search & filters, payment, cancellations. -
Design an API Gateway
Focus: Routing, authentication, rate limiting, load balancing, request transformation. -
Design a Cloud Storage Backup System
Focus: Incremental backups, deduplication, encryption, restore workflows. -
Design a Digital Wallet (Google Pay / Paytm)
Focus: Ledger management, UPI/card integration, KYC, fraud prevention. -
Design a Microservices Observability System
Focus: Metrics, logging, tracing, dashboards, alerting. -
Design an Ad Serving Platform (Google Ads / Facebook Ads)
Focus: Real-time bidding, targeting, click fraud detection, reporting. -
Design a Job Search & Recruitment Platform (LinkedIn Jobs / Indeed)
Focus: Job posting, candidate matching, search filters, recommendation engine. -
Design a Parking Management System
Focus: Space allocation, real-time availability, reservations, payment. -
Design a Weather Forecasting System
Focus: Data ingestion from sensors/APIs, geospatial queries, caching, updates. -
Design a Fitness Tracking App (Strava / Fitbit)
Focus: Activity tracking, GPS data processing, leaderboards, social features. -
Design an Auction System (eBay)
Focus: Bid tracking, concurrency handling, anti-sniping, payment flow. -
Design a Crypto Exchange
Focus: Order matching engine, wallet management, real-time price feeds, compliance. -
Design a Live Sports Score & Streaming Platform
Focus: Real-time updates, low-latency streaming, push notifications, analytics. -
Design a Digital Identity Verification System
Focus: Document scanning, biometric verification, fraud detection, privacy compliance. -
Design a Virtual Event Platform (Hopin / Zoom Events)
Focus: Live streaming, breakout rooms, chat, scheduling, ticketing. -
Design a Travel Itinerary Planner
Focus: Multi-stop trip planning, API integrations (flights/hotels), recommendations, offline access. -
Design an Online Exam & Proctoring System
Focus: Question delivery, cheating prevention, real-time monitoring, scoring. -
Design a Hospital Management System
Focus: Patient records (EHR), appointment scheduling, billing, pharmacy integration. -
Design a Warehouse & Inventory Management System
Focus: Stock tracking, demand forecasting, order fulfillment, barcode/RFID. -
Design a Disaster Recovery System for Cloud Services
Focus: Cross-region replication, failover mechanisms, RTO/RPO targets, backup policies. -
Design a Crowdfunding Platform (Kickstarter / GoFundMe)
Focus: Campaign management, payment escrow, fraud prevention, payout workflows. -
Design an ATM Network
Focus: Cash withdrawal, PIN verification, inter-bank settlement, security. -
Design a Music Streaming Service (Spotify / Apple Music)
Focus: Song storage, playlists, licensing, recommendation engine, offline sync. -
Design a Drone Delivery Management System
Focus: Route planning, airspace compliance, real-time tracking, fleet coordination. -
Design a Public Transportation Ticketing System (Metro Card / NFC)
Focus: Tap-in/tap-out validation, balance management, anti-fraud, real-time sync. -
Design a Virtual Classroom Platform
Focus: Live teaching, student engagement tools, recordings, assignments, breakout sessions.
Interviews
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Design a payroll process platform like ZOHO
Focus: Employee portal, Payment portal, Leave balance, Caclculat salary credit -
Design a Loan portal system