Intermediate LevelSystem Design & Architecture
How do you design a Distributed Key-Value Store (like DynamoDB or Cassandra)?
❓ Interview Prompt: Explain designing a Key-Value Store, Consistent Hashing, Vector Clocks, LSM-Tree storage engine, Gossip protocol, and Quorum consistency.
Designing a high-throughput Distributed Key-Value Store (DynamoDB/Cassandra):
Architectural Building Blocks:
1
Data Partitioning: Consistent Hashing Ring with Virtual Nodes.
2
Storage Engine: LSM-Tree (MemTable + SSTables) for high-speed sequential writes.
3
Cluster Membership: Gossip Protocol for node discovery.
4
Conflict Resolution: Vector Clocks or Last-Write-Wins (LWW) timestamp ordering.
5
Replication: Tunable Quorum Reads and Writes ($R + W > N$).
Code Implementation Example
markdown
Distributed Key-Value Store Architecture:
[Client Request] ──> [Coordinator Node] ──(Consistent Hash Ring)
├──> [Node 1 (LSM Engine)] (Quorum Write)
├──> [Node 2 (LSM Engine)] (Quorum Write)
└──> [Node 3 (LSM Engine)]💡Distributed Key-Value Store architecture combining Consistent Hashing, LSM-Trees, and Quorum writes.
🎯 Interview Key Takeaway
Design distributed key-value stores by integrating Consistent Hashing, LSM-Trees, Gossip protocol, and Quorum consistency.
#System Design#Key-Value Store#DynamoDB#Cassandra#Intermediate
Back to all System Design & Architecture Questions→