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System Design Case Studies Tracker

41 case studies tagged API Design 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
API Design✕Clear all
Access Control System (RBAC + Resource Permissions)
6 min readSecurityDatabasesAPI Design
Intermediate▶ Mock
Android MVVM Architecture for API-Driven Screens
4 min readFrontendAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Calendar Service (Google Calendar)
6 min readSchedulingDistributed SystemsStorage
Intermediate+2▶ Mock
Cloud Console Home Page (Backend-for-Frontend)
4 min readFrontendAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Coffee Ordering System with Real-Time Notifications
6 min readE-commerceReal-timeAPI Design
Beginner▶ Mock
Color Suggestion System (Adobe)
4 min readAI / MLAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Credit Card Customer Portal
5 min readFintechSecurityAPI Design
Beginner▶ Mock
CRUD APIs with Asynchronous Background Jobs
4 min readAPI DesignSchedulingDatabases
Beginner▶ Mock
Daily Puzzle Platform (Wordle-style)
3 min readAPI DesignCachingDatabases
Beginner▶ Mock
Distributed Rate Limiter
8 min readRate LimitingDistributed SystemsAPI Design
Intermediate+9▶ Mock
Reusable Dropdown / Select Component (Frontend System Design)
4 min readFrontendAPI Design
Intermediate▶ Mock
Demand-Side Ad Platform: Campaigns, Targeting and Edit History
3 min readAdsDatabasesAPI Design
Intermediate▶ Mock
Fitness Tracking App (Strava-style)
3 min readGeospatialStorageAPI Design
Intermediate▶ Mock
Governed Data Service for Downstream Consumers
3 min readAPI DesignData PipelinesSecurity
Intermediate▶ Mock
Simple Greeting-Card Web App (MVP Architecture)
4 min readAPI DesignStorageCDN
Beginner▶ Mock
Storing a Hierarchy and Returning All Descendants
4 min readDatabasesAPI DesignAlgorithms
Intermediate▶ Mock
Low-Latency Holiday Lookup Service
4 min readCachingAPI DesignFintech
Beginner▶ Mock
Streaming Homepage Rows with Viewport Loading and Deduplication (Netflix)
4 min readFrontendAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Fast Host Listings Metrics Page (Airbnb)
4 min readAnalyticsDatabasesCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Preventing Duplicate Request Processing (Idempotency Keys)
4 min readAPI DesignDistributed SystemsPayments
Beginner▶ Mock
Interactive SQL Query Notebook (Snowflake)
4 min readAPI DesignSchedulingStorage
Intermediate▶ Mock
REST APIs for JSON Document Storage
3 min readAPI DesignStorageDatabases
Beginner▶ 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
Multi-Carrier Parcel Shipping System
4 min readE-commerceAPI DesignEvent Driven
Intermediate▶ Mock
Personal Finance Dashboard from Multiple Providers
3 min readFintechAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Multi-Vendor Integration Platform (Connectors for Email, Slack, CRMs)
4 min readAPI DesignSecurityEvent Driven
Intermediate▶ 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
Online Bookstore with Price Aggregation
7 min readE-commerceAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Making Many HTTP Requests Fast (Within Rate Limits)
3 min readConcurrencyAPI DesignRate Limiting
Intermediate▶ Mock
Pastebin (Share Text by Link)
4 min readStorageCachingAPI Design
Beginner▶ Mock
Prompt Sharing Platform
5 min readAI / MLSecurityDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Runtime Localization System (i18n)
4 min readFrontendAPI DesignCDN
Intermediate▶ Mock
Secure Multi-Tenant API for an Enterprise AI Copilot
4 min readAI / MLSecurityAPI Design
Advanced▶ Mock
Secure Internal Web App for Sensitive Financial Data
4 min readSecurityAPI DesignDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Aggregator Service over Many Downstream Microservices
3 min readDistributed SystemsAPI DesignCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Tagging System with Clean REST APIs (Confluence / Jira Labels)
3 min readAPI DesignDatabasesSearch
Beginner▶ Mock
To-Do List Service (REST API and Real-Time Shared Lists)
5 min readAPI DesignReal-timeCollaboration
Beginner▶ Mock
URL Shortener (TinyURL / bit.ly)
7 min readDistributed SystemsCachingStorage
Beginner+4▶ Mock
Voting System APIs and Data Model
3 min readAPI DesignDatabasesSecurity
Beginner▶ 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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