System Design Guide

Scalability Approach

How does your system accommodate growth? vertical or horizontal?

Response Time and Workload

Key metrics include response time (latency) and processing capacity (throughput).

Data Storage Strategy

Choose between relational (SQL) and non-relational (NoSQL) databases, understanding their strengths and weaknesses.

Optimizing Data Access

Comprehend database indexing and its impact on performance.

Workload Distribution

Familiarize yourself with various load-balancing algorithms and their applications.

Data Retrieval Acceleration

Utilize caching to speed up data retrieval, considering different strategies and their trade-offs.

Foundational Networking Concepts

Understand TCP/IP, HTTP vs HTTPS, UDP, and DNS fundamentals.

Decomposing Systems

Break down large systems into microservices for better management.

Data Distribution Strategy

Explore different data sharding techniques as your data volume grows, understanding their trade-offs.

CAP Principle

Choose between Consistency, Availability, and Partition Tolerance – you can only prioritize two.

System Interaction Interfaces

Master API design and adhere to best practices.

Ensuring System Continuity

Design systems with redundancy and failover mechanisms for high availability.

Asynchronous Communication

Employ message queues for reliable data transfer without immediate responses.

Enhancing Reliability

Implement data replication across multiple machines to improve availability.

Handling Concurrent Operations

Manage multiple requests concurrently without conflicts.

Thread Management

Skillfully handle multiple threads and synchronization.

Regulating Request Rates

Implement rate limiting to control request influx and prevent overload.

Consensus Building Algorithms

Familiarize yourself with consensus algorithms like Raft and Paxos.

Request Consistency

Ensure idempotency, where repeating requests yield the same result

Choosing Communication Protocols

Determine whether to use RESTful APIs or RPC based on system requirements.

Data Delivery Mechanisms

Understand the differences between polling and push mechanisms and their suitable applications.

Monitoring System Connectivity and Health

Regularly exchange heartbeats between machines to monitor network connectivity and system health.

Consistency Models 

Weigh the trade-offs between eventual and strong consistency based on use cases.

System Activity Tracking

 Recognize the significance of logging and monitoring for system maintenance.

Preventing System Failures

Learn how circuit breakers can mitigate system failures by temporarily halting traffic to malfunctioning components.