System Design

1. Scalability

Scalability refers to a system’s ability to handle increasing workloads, users, or data without affecting performance.. A scalable system can expand resources such as servers, storage, or processing power when needed.

• When a system's workload or scope rises, it should be able to maintain or even improve its performance, efficiency, and dependability. This is known as scalability.
• A system must be scalable in order to accommodate growing user traffic, data volumes, or computing demands without suffering a major performance hit or necessitating a total redesign.

2. Latency

Latency in system design is the total time delay between a user making a request and the system delivering the response. It is a critical performance metric measured in milliseconds (ms), where a lower number indicates a faster, more responsive application.

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Latency vs. Throughput

These two metrics define system performance but measure different things:

• Latency: The time it takes for a single data packet to travel across the system (e.g., 50 ms response time).
• Throughput: The total volume of requests or data a system can process in a given timeframe (e.g., 10,000 requests per second).

3. Throughput

4. Bottleneck

5. Availability

6. Fault Tolerance