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System Design Case Studies Tracker

23 case studies from Amazon with full breakdowns.

176case studies
30companies
31topics
~5 minaverage read

Companies

Meta28Microsoft27Amazon23OpenAI23Google20TikTok16Anthropic15Salesforce15Apple12Uber12Atlassian11JPMorgan11LinkedIn11Goldman Sachs9Netflix9Oracle9Snowflake9Rippling8Airbnb7Bloomberg7Capital One7Databricks7Walmart7Flipkart6NVIDIA6Pinterest6Roblox6Adobe4Visa4Anduril1

Topics

Distributed Systems 90Real-time 51Storage 43Data Pipelines 42API Design 41Databases 38Caching 37Security 32AI / ML 23Algorithms 20Scheduling 20Search 19Event Driven 14Fintech 14Analytics 11E-commerce 11Geospatial 11Observability 11Payments 11Messaging 10CDN 9Ads 8Concurrency 8Frontend 8Booking System 6Networking 5IoT 4Collaboration 3Media 3Media Streaming 3Rate Limiting 2
Amazon✕Clear all
Instagram
17 min readDistributed SystemsMediaSearch
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Push Notification Service
17 min readReal-timeMessagingDistributed Systems
Advanced+5▶ Mock
Web Crawler
15 min readDistributed SystemsStorageSearch
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Uber Design (Ride-Hailing)
5 min readGeospatialReal-timeDistributed Systems
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Reviewing an Existing Architecture for Risks
6 min readDistributed SystemsSecurityObservability
Intermediate▶ Mock
ChatGPT-Style Conversational AI Service
7 min readAI / MLReal-timeDistributed Systems
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Core Dump Collection and Crash Analysis System
5 min readObservabilityStorageData Pipelines
Intermediate▶ Mock
Distributed Job Scheduler (Cron at Scale)
7 min readSchedulingDistributed SystemsEvent Driven
Advanced+7▶ Mock
Centralized Logging System (ELK / Splunk)
6 min readObservabilityData PipelinesSearch
Intermediate+1▶ Mock
Faceted Product Search at Large Scale (Amazon)
4 min readSearchE-commerceDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
Globally Consistent (Linearizable) Metadata Service
4 min readDistributed SystemsDatabasesStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
IoT / Sensor Telemetry Pipeline
7 min readIoTData PipelinesStorage
Intermediate+1▶ Mock
Large File Upload and Processing Pipeline
7 min readStorageData PipelinesSecurity
Intermediate▶ Mock
Highly Available Software Load Balancer
7 min readDistributed SystemsNetworkingAPI Design
Intermediate▶ Mock
Metrics Monitoring and Alerting System
7 min readObservabilityData PipelinesStorage
Advanced+3▶ Mock
Personal Finance Dashboard from Multiple Providers
3 min readFintechAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Multi-Tenant Data Ingestion and Processing Platform
4 min readData PipelinesDistributed SystemsSecurity
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
Perishable-Goods Inventory and Location Tracking
3 min readE-commerceDatabasesEvent Driven
Intermediate▶ Mock
High Availability and Failover for a Primary-Replica Database
4 min readDatabasesDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
Relational Database Internals (Write Path and Recovery)
7 min readDatabasesStorageDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Human Avoidance for Autonomous Warehouse Robots
4 min readReal-timeAI / MLIoT
Advanced▶ Mock

Frequently Asked Questions

What are system design case studies?

System design case studies are real-world architecture problems broken down into structured breakdowns. Each case study covers requirements, high-level design, scale estimates, API designs, and deep dives into key components.

How many system design case studies should I prepare?

For FAANG interviews, preparing 15-20 case studies covering core topics like caching, load balancing, and database sharding is recommended. Focus on understanding trade-offs rather than memorizing solutions.

Which companies ask system design case studies?

All FAANG companies (Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, Microsoft) plus top tech companies like Netflix, Uber, and Airbnb ask system design case studies. Senior-level interviews almost always include at least one system design round.

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