Google Maps System Design (Tiles & Routing Explained)
Design a mapping service like Google Maps that provides maps, route calculation, real-time traffic, location search, and navigation. The system must handle geospatial data, routing algorithms, and real-time updates at global scale.
Constraints
Display maps (roads, landmarks, POI), location search (places, addresses, businesses), route calculation (optimal, multi-point), real-time traffic and route updates, turn-by-turn navigation, optional Street View and offline caching, place details (reviews, hours, photos)
Global coverage, tiles < 200ms, traffic within 1–2 min, billions of requests/day, accurate maps and routing, mobile-optimized
1B users, 200M DAU; 4B map requests/day, peak ~100K/s; 1B routes/day, peak ~20K/s; ~100M tiles ~50 KB → ~5 TB; ~100 GB/day route data; ~1M segments/min traffic (~17K/s)