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System Design Case Studies Tracker

38 case studies tagged Databases 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
Databases✕Clear all
Access Control System (RBAC + Resource Permissions)
6 min readSecurityDatabasesAPI Design
Intermediate▶ Mock
Highly Reliable Account Balance System (Wallet / Ledger)
5 min readFintechPaymentsDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Ads Platform Data Model (OLTP and Reporting)
5 min readAdsDatabasesAnalytics
Intermediate▶ Mock
Bidirectional Data Sync Dashboard
5 min readDistributed SystemsEvent DrivenDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Concurrent Car Reservation Service
4 min readBooking SystemDatabasesConcurrency
Intermediate▶ Mock
University Course Registration System
4 min readBooking SystemDatabasesConcurrency
Intermediate▶ Mock
CRUD APIs with Asynchronous Background Jobs
4 min readAPI DesignSchedulingDatabases
Beginner▶ Mock
Daily Puzzle Platform (Wordle-style)
3 min readAPI DesignCachingDatabases
Beginner▶ Mock
Inventory Serving on Spinning Disks with Little RAM
5 min readStorageDatabasesAlgorithms
Advanced▶ Mock
Distributed Cache and the Hot Key / Cache Stampede Problem
6 min readCachingDistributed SystemsDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Distributed File System (GFS / HDFS)
5 min readStorageDistributed SystemsDatabases
Advanced▶ Mock
Distributed Key-Value Store (DynamoDB / Cassandra)
7 min readDatabasesDistributed SystemsStorage
Advanced+2▶ Mock
Demand-Side Ad Platform: Campaigns, Targeting and Edit History
3 min readAdsDatabasesAPI Design
Intermediate▶ Mock
E-commerce Tables and Indexes for Recent-Spend Queries
3 min readDatabasesE-commerce
Beginner▶ Mock
E-commerce Shopping Website (and Fixing Cart Latency)
5 min readE-commerceCachingDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Fixing a Flawed Database Table (Normalization and Indexes)
4 min readDatabases
Beginner▶ Mock
Globally Consistent (Linearizable) Metadata Service
4 min readDistributed SystemsDatabasesStorage
Advanced▶ Mock
Storing a Hierarchy and Returning All Descendants
4 min readDatabasesAPI DesignAlgorithms
Intermediate▶ Mock
Fast Host Listings Metrics Page (Airbnb)
4 min readAnalyticsDatabasesCaching
Intermediate▶ Mock
Train Search and Seat Availability DB Design (IRCTC)
4 min readDatabasesBooking SystemSearch
Intermediate▶ Mock
REST APIs for JSON Document Storage
3 min readAPI DesignStorageDatabases
Beginner▶ Mock
Word Store with Lexicographic Range Queries
4 min readStorageAlgorithmsDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Scalable Likes System and Like Counter
5 min readDistributed SystemsCachingDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Evaluating and Executing a MySQL to MongoDB Migration
4 min readDatabasesDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
Optimizing Slow Queries on a Million-Row Table
3 min readDatabasesCaching
Beginner▶ Mock
Perishable-Goods Inventory and Location Tracking
3 min readE-commerceDatabasesEvent Driven
Intermediate▶ Mock
Portfolio Management System (HLD + DB Design)
3 min readFintechDatabasesAnalytics
Intermediate▶ Mock
High Availability and Failover for a Primary-Replica Database
4 min readDatabasesDistributed Systems
Intermediate▶ Mock
E-commerce Product Catalog and Price Updates
6 min readE-commerceCachingDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Explaining Your Own Project Architecture (and Scaling It Up)
5 min readDistributed SystemsDatabasesCaching
Beginner▶ Mock
Prompt Sharing Platform
5 min readAI / MLSecurityDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Relational Database Internals (Write Path and Recovery)
7 min readDatabasesStorageDistributed Systems
Advanced▶ Mock
Cloud Resource Change Tracking Database
3 min readDatabasesEvent DrivenStorage
Intermediate▶ Mock
Secure Internal Web App for Sensitive Financial Data
4 min readSecurityAPI DesignDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Highly Available Spring Boot Service with Background Jobs
4 min readDistributed SystemsSchedulingDatabases
Intermediate▶ Mock
Tagging System with Clean REST APIs (Confluence / Jira Labels)
3 min readAPI DesignDatabasesSearch
Beginner▶ Mock
Troubleshooting a Slow or Failing Production System
5 min readObservabilityDistributed SystemsDatabases
Intermediate▶ 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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