System Design Crash Course

Core Concepts

Vertical vs Horizontal Scaling

• Vertical Scaling: Adding more CPU, Memory, Network bandwidth, etc.
• Horizontal Scaling: Add more hosts or nodes

CAP Theorem

• C (Consistency) A (Availability) P (Partition Tolerance)
• Consistency - When you read, you have the most recent write
• Availability - Your system remains available through failures
• Partition Tolerance - You system can survive a network partition