System Design Process
A structured approach to designing complex, scalable systems.
Step-by-Step Approach
- Requirements Clarification:
- Functional Requirements (What does the system do?)
- Non-Functional Requirements (Scalability, Latency, Availability).
- Back-of-the-envelope Estimations:
Traffic, Storage, Bandwidth, and Memory calculations.
- System Interface Definition:
Define APIs and contract.
- Defining Data Model:
Schema design, SQL vs NoSQL selection.
- High-Level Design:
Draw the main components and how they interact.
- Detailed Design:
Deep dive into critical components (Caching, Load Balancing, Partitioning).
- Identifying Bottlenecks:
Single points of failure, data hotspots.