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System Design Case Studies Tracker

14 case studies from Amazon tagged Distributed Systems with full breakdowns.

176case studies
30companies
31topics
~5 minaverage read
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
Distributed Job Scheduler (Cron at Scale)
7 min readSchedulingDistributed SystemsEvent Driven
Advanced+7▶ 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
Highly Available Software Load Balancer
7 min readDistributed SystemsNetworkingAPI Design
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
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

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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