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Distributed Systems System Design Case Studies

20 Distributed Systems case studies from Meta with full breakdowns.

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Gaming Leaderboard (Top K)
16 min readDistributed SystemsReal-timeStorage
Beginner▶ 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
Web Crawler
15 min readDistributed SystemsStorageSearch
Advanced+2▶ Mock
BookMyShow
9 min readDistributed SystemsPaymentsBooking System
Beginner▶ Mock
Uber Design (Ride-Hailing)
5 min readGeospatialReal-timeDistributed Systems
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Distributed Cache and the Hot Key / Cache Stampede Problem
6 min readCachingDistributed SystemsDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Distributed Job Scheduler (Cron at Scale)
7 min readSchedulingDistributed SystemsEvent Driven
Advanced+7▶ Mock
Distributed Rate Limiter
8 min readRate LimitingDistributed SystemsAPI Design
Intermediate+9▶ Mock
Live Comments for Live Video (Facebook Live / TikTok Live)
6 min readReal-timeMessagingDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
Real-Time Online Auction (eBay / Live Auctions)
7 min readReal-timeDistributed SystemsPayments
Advanced▶ 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
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
Recommendation System (Candidate Generation + Ranking)
6 min readAI / MLData PipelinesDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Troubleshooting a Slow or Failing Production System
5 min readObservabilityDistributed SystemsDatabases
Intermediate▶ 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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