Design Dropbox System Design Interview

1. Problem Statement

2. Architecture Discussion Map

Use this as one discussion aid, not a single correct answer. Your design should follow from the requirements, scale, and trade-offs you establish.

graph LR
    A["Design Dropbox"]
    A --> F1["File Chunking Rsync / CDC"]
    A --> F2["Synchronization Protocol Delta sync"]
    A --> F3["Metadata Storage ACID compliance"]
    A --> F4["Block Storage S3 / Blob store"]
    A --> F5["Client-Side Logic Watcher, Deduplication"]

3. Key Focus Areas

• 1
  File Chunking (Rsync / CDC)
• 2
  Synchronization Protocol (Delta sync)
• 3
  Metadata Storage (ACID compliance)
• 4
  Block Storage (S3 / Blob store)
• 5
  Client-Side Logic (Watcher, Deduplication)