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Storage System Design Case Studies

InterviewSkool tracks 43 Storage 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
StorageClear all
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
Netflix – Streaming Service
17 min readMedia StreamingCDNStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Search Engine (Google)
15 min readSearchDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced—▶ Mock
Web Crawler
15 min readDistributed SystemsStorageSearch
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Multi-Tenant Audit Logs Service
4 min readSecurityStorageData Pipelines
Intermediate▶ Mock
Calendar Service (Google Calendar)
6 min readSchedulingDistributed SystemsStorage
Intermediate+2▶ Mock
CI/CD Platform (GitHub Actions / Jenkins)
7 min readSchedulingDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Cloud Development Environment (Codespaces / Replit / DevBox)
7 min readDistributed SystemsSecurityScheduling
Advanced▶ Mock
Core Dump Collection and Crash Analysis System
5 min readObservabilityStorageData Pipelines
Intermediate▶ Mock
Digital Game Store and Distribution Platform (Steam)
6 min readE-commercePaymentsCDN
Intermediate▶ Mock
Inventory Serving on Spinning Disks with Little RAM
5 min readStorageDatabasesAlgorithms
Advanced▶ Mock
Distributed File System (GFS / HDFS)
5 min readStorageDistributed SystemsDatabases
Advanced▶ Mock
Distributed Key-Value Store (DynamoDB / Cassandra)
7 min readDatabasesDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Centralized Logging System (ELK / Splunk)
6 min readObservabilityData PipelinesSearch
Intermediate+1▶ Mock
Duplicate File Detection at Scale
6 min readStorageAlgorithmsDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
Sorting a 500 GB CSV with 16 GB of RAM (External Merge Sort)
4 min readAlgorithmsStorageData Pipelines
Intermediate▶ Mock
Fitness Tracking App (Strava-style)
3 min readGeospatialStorageAPI Design
Intermediate▶ Mock
Globally Consistent (Linearizable) Metadata Service
4 min readDistributed SystemsDatabasesStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Simple Greeting-Card Web App (MVP Architecture)
4 min readAPI DesignStorageCDN
Beginner▶ Mock
High-Volume Healthcare Data Ingestion Pipeline
4 min readData PipelinesSecurityStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Scalable Image Processing Service
5 min readData PipelinesSchedulingStorage
Intermediate▶ Mock
Interactive SQL Query Notebook (Snowflake)
4 min readAPI DesignSchedulingStorage
Intermediate▶ Mock
IoT / Sensor Telemetry Pipeline
7 min readIoTData PipelinesStorage
Intermediate+1▶ Mock
REST APIs for JSON Document Storage
3 min readAPI DesignStorageDatabases
Beginner▶ Mock
Large File Upload and Processing Pipeline
7 min readStorageData PipelinesSecurity
Intermediate▶ Mock
Word Store with Lexicographic Range Queries
4 min readStorageAlgorithmsDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Metrics Monitoring and Alerting System
7 min readObservabilityData PipelinesStorage
Advanced+3▶ Mock
Distributing Large Model Weights to Thousands of GPU Hosts
6 min readAI / MLDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Object Storage Service (Amazon S3) with Deduplication
6 min readStorageDistributed SystemsAPI Design
Advanced▶ Mock
Offline Multi-Device E-Book Reader (Kindle-style)
3 min readStorageAPI DesignCollaboration
Intermediate▶ Mock
Pastebin (Share Text by Link)
4 min readStorageCachingAPI Design
Beginner▶ Mock
Price Drop Tracker (CamelCamelCamel)
5 min readE-commerceSchedulingData Pipelines
Intermediate▶ Mock
AI Prompt Playground (OpenAI / Anthropic Console)
6 min readAI / MLFrontendStorage
Intermediate▶ Mock
Pub/Sub System with Replay (Seek Back in Time)
3 min readMessagingDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Relational Database Internals (Write Path and Recovery)
7 min readDatabasesStorageDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Cloud Resource Change Tracking Database
3 min readDatabasesEvent DrivenStorage
Intermediate▶ Mock
Data Engineering for a Short-Video App (TikTok-scale)
4 min readData PipelinesAnalyticsStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Street View Image Ingestion and Storage
4 min readMediaStorageData Pipelines
Advanced▶ Mock
Text-to-Video Generation Service (Sora)
6 min readAI / MLSchedulingDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
URL Shortener (TinyURL / bit.ly)
7 min readDistributed SystemsCachingStorage
Beginner+4▶ Mock
User Activity Collection and Recent-Window Queries
5 min readAnalyticsData PipelinesStorage
Intermediate▶ Mock

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Storage in system design?

Storage is a core system design topic covered in 43 case studies on InterviewSkool. It appears frequently in FAANG interviews, especially at Google, Amazon, and Meta.

How should I prepare Storage 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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