Netflix System Design (Streaming, CDN & Scale)

Design a video streaming platform like Netflix that allows users to watch movies and TV shows on demand.

Constraints

Functional

Video streaming (multiple qualities), user accounts and profiles, content library, recommendations from viewing history, search, play/pause/resume/seek

Non-functional

200M users, 100M concurrent streams, start < 2s, HD/4K, global low latency

Scale

200M users, 100M concurrent; ~40–200 TB video storage; ~5 Mbps avg bitrate, 500 Tbps peak; metadata negligible

Stages ahead

1Requirement Analysis
2API Design
3High-Level Design
4HLD Extensions
5Trade-offs