Want to ace your System Design interview? Start with these 8 core concepts.
The ultimate guide – Struggling to connect all the dots in system design?
This blueprint simplifies the big picture – from DNS to storage, all in one view.

1. DNS resolution
Understand how domain names are resolved to IPs using top-level, root, and authoritative name servers.

2. Load balancing
Use Round Robin, Least Connections, or Consistent Hashing to distribute traffic. Pair with an API Gateway for smarter routing.

3. Frontend + CDN + API gateway
Handle high concurrency via WebSockets, HLS/RTMP, and edge servers with static/hybrid cache strategies.

4. Backend servers & Message queue
Microservices run in clusters, handling API calls, writing to queues, or streaming live media via Kafka or RabbitMQ.

5. ID Generation & resource locking
Use UUID, Snowflake, and Zookeeper to avoid duplicate writes and ensure event integrity in concurrent requests.

6. Storage: Databases, Object store, caches
Choose between SQL/NoSQL, hot/cold storage, and memory caching with Redis. Add checksum & chunk metadata for uploads.

7. Media upload & processing
Each uploaded chunk is dispatched, validated, compressed, and stored. Workers process and push to final storage/CDNs.

8. Fan-out Services
Send updates to recommendation systems, notification engines, search, analytics, or payment systems with retries and dedup.