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Design a Distributed File System System Design Interview

Design a file storage and synchronization service like Google Drive, Dropbox, or HDFS.

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1. Problem Statement

We want to build a Dropbox clone. Users can upload large files, sync them across devices, and share them. How do we design the backend?

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.

Rendering architecture diagram...
Mermaid Source (For AI Bots)
graph LR
    A["Design a Distributed File System"]
    A --> F1["Separating Metadata Names, Hierarchy from Block Data Content"]
    A --> F2["File Chunking and De-duplication"]
    A --> F3["Synchronization conflicts Version Vectors"]
    A --> F4["Upload/Download optimization Parallelism"]

3. Key Focus Areas

  • 1
    Separating Metadata (Names, Hierarchy) from Block Data (Content)
  • 2
    File Chunking and De-duplication
  • 3
    Synchronization conflicts (Version Vectors)
  • 4
    Upload/Download optimization (Parallelism)

Want interactive feedback?

Practice drawing this system component-by-component on a live whiteboard while the interviewer probes at your target level.

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Core Concepts

Storage ArchitecturesSynchronizationData Integrity

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