System design building blocks

18 topics.

• 01FoundationReadLoad balancingL4 vs L7, algorithms, health checks and sticky sessions.
• 02FoundationReadCachingWhere caches go, how they go stale, and how they take systems down.
• 03FoundationReadCDNsPush vs pull, cache keys, and invalidation at the edge.
• 04FoundationReadChoosing a databaseRelational, key-value, document, wide column: decided by access patterns.
• 05Mid-levelReadIndexesB-trees vs LSM trees, and what an index costs on every write.
• 06Mid-levelReadReplicationLeader-follower, multi-leader, leaderless, and replication lag.
• 07Mid-levelReadPartitioning and shardingRange vs hash keys, hot partitions, and resharding without downtime.
• 08Mid-levelReadConsistent hashingAdding a node without reshuffling every key, with virtual nodes.
• 09Mid-levelReadConsistency modelsLinearizable to eventual, and the anomalies users actually see.
• 10Mid-levelReadMessage queues and streamsQueues vs logs, delivery guarantees, and why exactly-once is subtle.
• 11Mid-levelReadRate limitingAlgorithms and where to enforce limits in a distributed system.
• 12Mid-levelReadUnique ID generationUUIDs, Snowflake IDs and ticket servers compared.
• 13FoundationReadBlob storageStoring large files: chunking, metadata and presigned URLs.
• 14Mid-levelReadSearch and inverted indexesHow full text search works and when to reach for it.
• 15SeniorReadBloom filters and sketchesTrading a little accuracy for a lot of memory.
• 16SeniorReadDistributed transactions and sagasTwo phase commit, sagas, and the outbox pattern.
• 17SeniorReadConsensus and leader electionWhat Raft guarantees and when you need it.
• 18Mid-levelReadObservabilityMetrics, logs and traces, and the SLIs worth paging on.

More in System Design

• Fundamentals
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