System design interview questionHardE-Commerce
Design an E-Commerce Platform like Amazon
Design Amazon-style e-commerce: browse/search catalog, manage cart, and place orders at scale.
Interview scope
Client → Gateway/LB → App → Cache + DB; Queue for order side effects; CDN for product images (+ Object Storage). No Client → DB.
Functional requirements
- Browse/search product catalog.
- Add items to cart and checkout.
- Persist orders and trigger async fulfillment/notifications.
Scale and quality goals
- Catalog reads are huge — Cache (+ CDN for images).
- Orders need durable DB truth.
- Post-order side effects via Message Queue.
Capacity assumption
Design for this scale
Assume ~100M product page views/day (~1,160 RPS) and ~5M orders/day (~58 RPS average).
Practice more than a diagram
Place components on the Froquiz canvas, connect the data flow, and see which decisions the scenario-specific review finds missing. The full exercise and review unlock with Premium.
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