How can Cache Systems go wrong? The diagram below shows 4 typical cases where caches can go wrong and their solutions. 1. Thunder herd problem This happens when a large number of keys in the cache expire at the same time. Then the query requests directly hit the database, which

Explaining 8 Popular Network Protocols in 1 Diagram. Network protocols are standard methods of transferring data between two computers in a network. 1. HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) HTTP is a protocol for fetching resources such as HTML documents. It is the foundation

How HTTPS works HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a secure way to share information on the internet. It encrypts data transfer between client and server. But without common encryption key, how data is encrypted? Let's see how: 1 - Server Certificate Check -

11 Things I learned about API Development from POST/CON 2024. These learnings can be put into three major buckets: API Development Toolkit - API workflows are a critical requirement to build real-world applications. Postman Flows enables developers to automate API workflow

How do Search Engines really Work? The diagram below shows a high-level walk-through of a search engine. ▶️ Step 1 - Crawling Web Crawlers scan the internet for web pages. They follow the URL links from one page to another and store URLs in the URL store. The crawlers discover

Git Merge vs. Rebase vs. Squash Commit What are the differences? When we 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 from one Git branch to another, we can use ‘git merge’ or ‘git rebase’. The diagram below shows how the two commands work. 𝗚𝗶𝘁 𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲 This creates a new commit G’ in the

Logging, tracing and metrics are 3 pillars of system observability. The diagram below shows their definitions and typical architectures. 🔹 Logging Logging records discrete events in the system. For example, we can record an incoming request or a visit to databases as events.

URL, URI, URN: Understanding the Differences These terms form the foundation for identifying and accessing resources on the internet. Without them, finding and sharing information online would be more difficult. URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) - Identifies a logical or

How is data sent over the internet? What does that have to do with the OSI model? How does TCP/IP fit into this? 7 Layers in the OSI model are: 1. Physical Layer 2. Data Link Layer 3. Network Layer 4. Transport Layer 5. Session Layer 6. Presentation Layer 7. Application

IBM MQ -> RabbitMQ -> Kafka ->Pulsar, How do message queue architectures evolve? 🔹 IBM MQ IBM MQ was launched in 1993. It was originally called MQSeries and was renamed WebSphere MQ in 2002. It was renamed to IBM MQ in 2014. IBM MQ is a very successful product widely used in

Understanding the API Gateway An API Gateway is a server that acts as the single entry point for all clients. It provides a unified interface to a set of microservices, simplifies the client-side code, and hides the internal structure of the application. Here is a detailed

If you design complex systems, you'll love sequence diagrams Complex system architectures can quickly become tangled and hard to follow. Enter sequence diagrams! They keep your design neat and easily understandable. For example, check out the diagram below. It depicts a

Authentication in REST APIs acts as the crucial gateway, ensuring that solely authorized users or applications gain access to the API's resources. Some popular authentication methods for REST APIs include: 1. Basic Authentication: Involves sending a username and password

How do DevOps, NoOps change the software development lifecycle (SDLC)? The diagram below compares traditional SDLC, DevOps and NoOps. In a traditional software development, code, build, test, release and monitoring are siloed functions. Each stage works independently and hands

CAP, BASE, SOLID, KISS, What do these acronyms mean? The diagram below explains the common acronyms in system designs. 🔹 CAP CAP theorem states that any distributed data store can only provide two of the following three guarantees: 1. Consistency - Every read receives the most

Top 12 Tips for API Security - Use HTTPS - Use OAuth2 - Use WebAuthn - Use Leveled API Keys - Authorization - Rate Limiting - API Versioning - Whitelisting - Check OWASP API Security Risks - Use API Gateway - Error Handling - Input Validation – Subscribe to our

Understanding Docker Docker provides lightweight virtualization on your desktop using containers. Here's what happens when you "docker build", "docker pull", "docker run": 1. Docker Client talks to the Docker Daemon 2. Docker Daemon manages containers and images 3. Docker

Polling Vs Webhooks - Polling Polling involves repeatedly checking the external service or endpoint at fixed intervals to retrieve updated information. It’s like constantly asking, “Do you have something new for me?” even where there might not be any update. This

Encoding vs Encryption vs Tokenization. Encoding, encryption, and tokenization are three distinct processes that handle data in different ways for various purposes, including data transmission, security, and compliance. In system designs, we need to select the right approach

A Visual Overview of Kubernetes Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that helps deploy, scale, and manage containerized applications across clusters of machines. It addresses the challenges of running containers at scale. 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗞𝘂𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗲𝘀