Welcome to the System Design Study project — a comprehensive collection of real-world system design challenges, explored and implemented across multiple programming languages: PHP (Symfony), Go, JavaScript (Node.js), and Java (Spring Boot).
This repository offers practical examples, theoretical insights, architecture diagrams, and multi-tech implementations to help you master scalable, reliable, and maintainable system design.
- Introduction
- Project Structure
- System Design Categories & Cases
- Supported Languages
- How to Use
- Contributing
- License
System design is a fundamental skill for software engineers and architects, involving the creation of scalable, fault-tolerant, and maintainable software systems.
This project dives into diverse design cases, combining theory, diagrams, and code implementations in four languages to strengthen your understanding from multiple angles.
Each case includes:
- Theoretical explanations and system diagrams
- Detailed real-world problem statements
- Clean, tested code implementations
- Multi-language support with best practices
system-design-study/
├── README.md # Project overview and instructions
├── diagrams/ # Architecture and system design diagrams
├── docs/ # Theoretical explanations and use cases
├── implements/
│ ├── platforms/ # Foundational building blocks
│ | ├── project-name/ # Project implementation
│ | | ├── go/ # Go implementations
│ | | ├── nodejs/ # JavaScript (Node.js) implementations
│ | | ├── springboot/ # Java (Spring Boot) implementations
│ | | └── symfony/ # PHP (Symfony) implementations
│ ├── services/ # Focused microservices
│ | ├── project-name/ # Project implementation
│ | | ├── go/ # Go implementations
│ | | ├── nodejs/ # JavaScript (Node.js) implementations
│ | | ├── springboot/ # Java (Spring Boot) implementations
│ | | └── symfony/ # PHP (Symfony) implementations
│ ├── system/ # Full end-to-end applications
│ | ├── project-name/ # Project implementation
│ | | ├── go/ # Go implementations
│ | | ├── nodejs/ # JavaScript (Node.js) implementations
│ | | ├── springboot/ # Java (Spring Boot) implementations
─ ─ ─ └── symfony/ # PHP (Symfony) implementations
We classify system design challenges into three main categories to better understand their scope and purpose:
Full end-to-end applications solving real-world problems. These systems include multiple components and services.
| Idea | Description | Priority |
|---|---|---|
url-shortener |
Create a scalable short URL system like Bitly | 1 |
real-time-chat |
Real-time messaging system with WebSocket & delivery tracking | 3 |
ecommerce-backend |
Modular backend for cart, order, and payment systems | 4 |
file-storage-system |
Upload, store, and manage user files securely (like Dropbox) | 5 |
notification-system |
Send emails, SMS, and push messages via async queues | 2 |
blogging-system |
Markdown-based blog system with publishing workflows | 12 |
document-collab |
Real-time collaborative editing with sync and conflict resolution | 15 |
news-feed |
Build a social media system with feeds, content scoring, large-scale reads | 7 |
Foundational building blocks that power other systems. Reusable, scalable, and often infrastructure-level.
| Idea | Description | Priority |
|---|---|---|
multi-tenant-saas |
Design a SaaS-ready backend with tenant isolation | 11 |
analytics-engine |
Track user events & pageviews with scalable storage | 14 |
video-streaming |
Stream videos with encoding, metadata, and CDN-like delivery | 8 |
online-booking |
Prevent double booking with concurrency control (tickets/hotels) | 9 |
online-exam |
Secure online exam platform with timed sessions and grading | 20 |
Focused microservices providing specific capabilities, often embedded inside larger systems.
| Idea | Description | Priority |
|---|---|---|
rate-limiter |
Throttle API usage per user/IP using sliding window or token bucket | 6 |
auth-service |
Centralized authentication & authorization (JWT, OAuth2) | 13 |
job-queue |
Queue and process background jobs with retries and scheduling | 10 |
payment-service |
Handle secure payments with idempotency and webhook confirmation | 19 |
search-service |
Full-text search with ranking and autocomplete (Elastic-like) | 16 |
iot-ingestion |
Collect high-throughput telemetry from IoT devices | 18 |
cdn-file-serving |
Deliver static/media files with edge caching & TTL | 17 |
| Language | Folder Name | Build Command | Test Command |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHP (Symfony) | symfony/ |
php bin/console |
php bin/phpunit |
| Go | go/ |
go build ./src/... |
go test ./tests/... |
| JavaScript (Node.js) | nodejs/ |
npm run build or node src/... |
npm test |
| Java (Spring Boot) | springboot/ |
./mvnw clean install |
./mvnw test |
git clone https://github.com/JawherKl/system-design-study.git
cd system-design-studyNavigate to the implementation in your preferred language, for example:
cd implements/nodejs/url-shortenerEach implementation folder contains detailed setup, build, and run instructions, including:
- Environment variables
- Dependencies
- Running servers and tests
- Review the theory and diagrams in
/docsand/diagrams - Compare implementations across languages
- Experiment and extend the systems!
Contributions are highly encouraged! To contribute:
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch (
feature/your-feature-name) - Implement your additions or fixes
- Submit a pull request with clear descriptions
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
Feel free to open issues or pull requests for questions, suggestions, or collaboration.