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System Design Case Studies Tracker

28 case studies from Meta 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
Meta✕Clear all
Gaming Leaderboard (Top K)
16 min readDistributed SystemsReal-timeStorage
Beginner▶ Mock
Instagram
17 min readDistributed SystemsMediaSearch
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Netflix – Streaming Service
17 min readMedia StreamingCDNStorage
Advanced▶ 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
Ad Click and Impression Aggregator
6 min readAdsAnalyticsData Pipelines
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Content Moderation System (Harmful Post Detection)
6 min readAI / MLSecurityData Pipelines
Advanced▶ 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
Fitness Tracking App (Strava-style)
3 min readGeospatialStorageAPI Design
Intermediate▶ Mock
Flight Search Platform (Google Flights / Kayak)
4 min readSearchCachingData Pipelines
Advanced▶ Mock
Food and Quick-Commerce Delivery Platform (Uber Eats / DoorDash)
6 min readGeospatialReal-timeE-commerce
Advanced▶ 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
Price Drop Tracker (CamelCamelCamel)
5 min readE-commerceSchedulingData Pipelines
Intermediate▶ Mock
Proximity Search (Yelp / Nearby Restaurants)
7 min readGeospatialSearchCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Recommendation System (Candidate Generation + Ranking)
6 min readAI / MLData PipelinesDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Top-K Trending Items (Heavy Hitters)
7 min readAnalyticsReal-timeAlgorithms
Advanced+4▶ Mock
Troubleshooting a Slow or Failing Production System
5 min readObservabilityDistributed SystemsDatabases
Intermediate▶ 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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