System Design Fundamentals
This section covers foundational concepts for system design. These concepts apply across different types of systems and appear in most system design discussions.
Core Concepts
Scalability
Horizontal vs vertical scaling, load distribution, and handling growth.
Reliability
Fault tolerance, redundancy, and designing systems that continue operating during failures.
Databases
SQL vs NoSQL, indexing, sharding, replication, and database selection criteria.
Caching
Cache strategies, invalidation approaches, and performance optimization.
Load Balancing
Traffic distribution across infrastructure components.
API Design
REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and API design principles.
Distributed Systems
CAP theorem, consensus protocols, and distributed computing challenges.
Relevance to System Design
System design discussions typically address the following questions:
| Question | Related Concepts |
|---|---|
| How does the system handle increased traffic? | Scalability, load balancing, caching |
| What happens when a component fails? | Reliability, fault tolerance, redundancy |
| Where is data stored and how is it accessed? | Databases, caching, replication |
| How do components communicate? | API design, protocols, message queues |
Understanding these fundamentals enables systematic analysis of any design problem.