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Distributed Systems System Design Case Studies

InterviewSkool tracks 90 Distributed Systems case studies with architecture diagrams, scale estimates, and deep dives.

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Companies

Topics

Distributed Systems 90Real-time 51Storage 43Data Pipelines 42API Design 41Databases 38Caching 37Security 32AI / ML 23Algorithms 20Scheduling 20Search 19Event Driven 14Fintech 14Payments 11Geospatial 11Analytics 11Observability 11E-commerce 11Messaging 10CDN 9Concurrency 8Ads 8Frontend 8Booking System 6Networking 5IoT 4Media 3Media Streaming 3Collaboration 3Rate Limiting 2
Distributed SystemsClear all
Coupon Distribution System
7 min readDistributed SystemsSecurityEvent Driven
Advanced—▶ Mock
Gaming Leaderboard (Top K)
16 min readDistributed SystemsReal-timeStorage
Beginner▶ Mock
Google Drive
16 min readStorageCDNDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Instagram
17 min readDistributed SystemsMediaSearch
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Push Notification Service
17 min readReal-timeMessagingDistributed Systems
Advanced+5▶ Mock
MakeMyTrip – Hotel Booking System
20 min readDistributed SystemsPaymentsBooking System
Beginner+3▶ Mock
Messenger App
9 min readReal-timeMessagingDistributed Systems
Advanced+5▶ Mock
Search Engine (Google)
15 min readSearchDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced—▶ Mock
Web Crawler
15 min readDistributed SystemsStorageSearch
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Live Location Sharing App
4 min readGeospatialReal-timeDistributed Systems
Beginner—▶ Mock
Snap Map Design
5 min readGeospatialReal-timeDistributed Systems
Beginner—▶ Mock
BookMyShow
9 min readDistributed SystemsPaymentsBooking System
Beginner▶ Mock
Uber Design (Ride-Hailing)
5 min readGeospatialReal-timeDistributed Systems
Advanced+2▶ Mock
A/B Testing (Experimentation) Platform
5 min readAnalyticsData PipelinesDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
Ad Frequency Capping Service (Netflix Ads)
7 min readAdsReal-timeCaching
Advanced▶ Mock
Ad Budget Pacing System
5 min readAdsReal-timeDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Tracing and Debugging AI Agent Tool Calls
5 min readAI / MLObservabilityDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
Reviewing an Existing Architecture for Risks
6 min readDistributed SystemsSecurityObservability
Intermediate▶ Mock
Bidirectional Data Sync Dashboard
5 min readDistributed SystemsEvent DrivenDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Calendar Service (Google Calendar)
6 min readSchedulingDistributed SystemsStorage
Intermediate+2▶ Mock
ChatGPT-Style Conversational AI Service
7 min readAI / MLReal-timeDistributed Systems
Advanced+2▶ Mock
CI/CD Platform (GitHub Actions / Jenkins)
7 min readSchedulingDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Cloud Console Home Page (Backend-for-Frontend)
4 min readFrontendAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Cloud Development Environment (Codespaces / Replit / DevBox)
7 min readDistributed SystemsSecurityScheduling
Advanced▶ Mock
Real-Time Collaborative Editor (Google Docs / Sheets)
7 min readCollaborationReal-timeDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Cross-Region Event Processing Platform
4 min readEvent DrivenDistributed SystemsMessaging
Advanced▶ Mock
Real-Time Data Stream Processor
4 min readData PipelinesReal-timeDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
Distributed Cache and the Hot Key / Cache Stampede Problem
6 min readCachingDistributed SystemsDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Distributed Crossword Solver
6 min readAlgorithmsDistributed SystemsScheduling
Advanced▶ Mock
Distributed File System (GFS / HDFS)
5 min readStorageDistributed SystemsDatabases
Advanced▶ Mock
Distributed Job Scheduler (Cron at Scale)
7 min readSchedulingDistributed SystemsEvent Driven
Advanced+7▶ Mock
Distributed Key-Value Store (DynamoDB / Cassandra)
7 min readDatabasesDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Finding the Mode of Data Spread Across Many Machines
4 min readAlgorithmsDistributed SystemsData Pipelines
Intermediate▶ Mock
Distributed Rate Limiter
8 min readRate LimitingDistributed SystemsAPI Design
Intermediate+9▶ Mock
Duplicate File Detection at Scale
6 min readStorageAlgorithmsDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
E-commerce Shopping Website (and Fixing Cart Latency)
5 min readE-commerceCachingDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
911 Emergency Call Routing Platform
5 min readReal-timeDistributed SystemsGeospatial
Advanced▶ Mock
Enterprise AI Agent for a Global Company
5 min readAI / MLSecurityDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Expense Policy and Violation Processing (Rippling)
5 min readFintechDistributed SystemsEvent Driven
Advanced▶ Mock
Faceted Product Search at Large Scale (Amazon)
4 min readSearchE-commerceDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
First-Time Kubernetes Deployment in a New Cloud
4 min readDistributed SystemsSecurityNetworking
Intermediate▶ Mock
Food and Quick-Commerce Delivery Platform (Uber Eats / DoorDash)
6 min readGeospatialReal-timeE-commerce
Advanced▶ Mock
Globally Consistent (Linearizable) Metadata Service
4 min readDistributed SystemsDatabasesStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
GPU Cluster Control Plane (Host Health, Repair and Job Dispatch)
7 min readObservabilitySchedulingDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Hosting Many Websites on One Server with One IP Address
4 min readNetworkingSecurityDistributed Systems
Beginner▶ Mock
Preventing Duplicate Request Processing (Idempotency Keys)
4 min readAPI DesignDistributed SystemsPayments
Beginner▶ Mock
Incident Ticket Correlation Platform
3 min readObservabilityData PipelinesDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Automated Jira-Ticket-to-Pull-Request System
4 min readAI / MLSchedulingDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Scalable Likes System and Like Counter
5 min readDistributed SystemsCachingDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Live Comments for Live Video (Facebook Live / TikTok Live)
6 min readReal-timeMessagingDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
Guardrails and Fallbacks for Reliable LLM Systems
4 min readAI / MLSecurityDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
LLM Inference API with Dynamic Batching
7 min readAI / MLConcurrencyScheduling
Advanced▶ Mock
Highly Available Software Load Balancer
7 min readDistributed SystemsNetworkingAPI Design
Intermediate▶ Mock
Malicious IP and URL Detection Service
5 min readSecurityReal-timeCaching
Advanced▶ Mock
Real-Time Market Data Distribution and VWAP (Bloomberg)
5 min readFintechReal-timeDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Matching Tagged Problems to Skilled Programmers at Scale
4 min readAlgorithmsDistributed SystemsScheduling
Advanced▶ Mock
Mobile Banking App Backend
3 min readFintechSecurityPayments
Intermediate▶ Mock
Distributing Large Model Weights to Thousands of GPU Hosts
6 min readAI / MLDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Multi-Carrier Parcel Shipping System
4 min readE-commerceAPI DesignEvent Driven
Intermediate▶ Mock
Multi-Tenant Data Ingestion and Processing Platform
4 min readData PipelinesDistributed SystemsSecurity
Advanced▶ Mock
Multi-Vendor Integration Platform (Connectors for Email, Slack, CRMs)
4 min readAPI DesignSecurityEvent Driven
Intermediate▶ Mock
Evaluating and Executing a MySQL to MongoDB Migration
4 min readDatabasesDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
News Aggregator (Google News)
6 min readSearchData PipelinesCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Object Storage Service (Amazon S3) with Deduplication
6 min readStorageDistributed SystemsAPI Design
Advanced▶ Mock
Real-Time Online Auction (eBay / Live Auctions)
7 min readReal-timeDistributed SystemsPayments
Advanced▶ Mock
Online Bookstore with Price Aggregation
7 min readE-commerceAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Online Chess Platform (chess.com)
6 min readReal-timeDistributed SystemsMessaging
Intermediate▶ Mock
Online Judge and Coding Contest Platform (LeetCode)
6 min readDistributed SystemsSecurityScheduling
Intermediate▶ Mock
Payment Processing System (Stripe-style)
6 min readPaymentsFintechDistributed Systems
Advanced+1▶ Mock
"Played by Your Friends" Social Summary (Roblox)
3 min readDistributed SystemsCachingReal-time
Intermediate▶ Mock
Post Privacy and Visibility System (Facebook-style)
4 min readSecurityDistributed SystemsCaching
Advanced▶ Mock
Social Post Search (Keyword and Boolean Queries)
6 min readSearchDistributed SystemsAlgorithms
Intermediate▶ Mock
Smart Grid Control over Unreliable Devices
7 min readIoTDistributed SystemsReal-time
Advanced▶ Mock
High Availability and Failover for a Primary-Replica Database
4 min readDatabasesDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
Explaining Your Own Project Architecture (and Scaling It Up)
5 min readDistributed SystemsDatabasesCaching
Beginner▶ Mock
Publisher Configuration Rules and Safe Global Rollout
5 min readAdsDistributed SystemsCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Pub/Sub System with Replay (Seek Back in Time)
3 min readMessagingDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Recommendation System (Candidate Generation + Ranking)
6 min readAI / MLData PipelinesDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Relational Database Internals (Write Path and Recovery)
7 min readDatabasesStorageDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Enterprise Remote Browser Isolation System
3 min readSecurityDistributed SystemsScheduling
Advanced▶ Mock
Global Restaurant Chain Menu Update System
4 min readDistributed SystemsCDNCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Scaling a Rules Engine for High Traffic (Rippling)
3 min readDistributed SystemsAlgorithmsEvent Driven
Advanced▶ Mock
Secure Multi-Tenant API for an Enterprise AI Copilot
4 min readAI / MLSecurityAPI Design
Advanced▶ Mock
Secure Internal Web App for Sensitive Financial Data
4 min readSecurityAPI DesignDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Aggregator Service over Many Downstream Microservices
3 min readDistributed SystemsAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Highly Available Spring Boot Service with Background Jobs
4 min readDistributed SystemsSchedulingDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Stock Trading Platform (Zerodha / Robinhood)
6 min readFintechPaymentsReal-time
Advanced▶ Mock
Text-to-Video Generation Service (Sora)
6 min readAI / MLSchedulingDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Troubleshooting a Slow or Failing Production System
5 min readObservabilityDistributed SystemsDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
URL Shortener (TinyURL / bit.ly)
7 min readDistributed SystemsCachingStorage
Beginner+4▶ Mock

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Distributed Systems in system design?

Distributed Systems is a core system design topic covered in 90 case studies on InterviewSkool. It appears frequently in FAANG interviews, especially at Google, Amazon, and Meta.

How should I prepare Distributed Systems for system design interviews?

Study the case studies above, focusing on architecture trade-offs, scale estimates, and API designs. Practice explaining your decisions aloud — this is exactly what interviewers evaluate.

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