Mock Interviewer

Ask Coach

Clarify requirements before you design — kept separate from your stage notes.

Tap a question to start, or type your own below.

URL Redirection System Design

Visual Problem Diagram

Scenario

Marketing emails blast 5M clicks in 10 minutes on one short link—your redirect tier must not collapse the origin database. This is URL shortener read path emphasis plus analytics and geo routing optional.

Design a URL redirection service optimized for massive read traffic and per-click analytics. Architecturally this aligns with a URL shortener where redirect latency and cache hit ratio define success.

You should support create link, fast redirect, optional expiry, and analytics. Be ready to explain edge caching, hot-key mitigation, and async event pipelines.

Constraints

Functional

Create short link, HTTP redirect, custom alias, expiry, click analytics, abuse blocklist

Non-functional

< 50 ms redirect p95 globally, 99.99% availability, accurate click counts eventually

Scale

100B redirects/month, viral links to 100K RPS, millions new links/month

Stages ahead

1Requirement Analysis

2API Design

3High-Level Design

4HLD Extensions

5Trade-offs

Log in to start practicing

Preview the problem below. Sign in to start your timed session, save progress, and use the AI coach.