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# System Design Challenge

## 📋 What to Expect
**Duration:** 60 minutes  
**Format:** Collaborative system design discussion  
**Challenge:** Design a system to handle 1M+ transactions per day

**💡 AI Assistance Welcome:** Feel free to use AI tools during our discussion.

## ⚡ The Challenge

### **The Problem**
You're the lead architect for a high-volume transaction platform that's experiencing rapid growth. Currently handling ~100K transactions per day, the business is projecting 10x growth over the next year. The existing system is starting to show strain during peak hours, and you need to design a solution that can handle massive scale while maintaining reliability.

### **Current System Context**
- **Current Volume**: ~100K transactions/day
- **Target Volume**: 1M+ transactions/day
- **Peak Traffic**: 10x average during flash sales and events
- **User Base**: Global users across multiple time zones
- **Business Criticality**: Revenue-generating transactions that cannot be lost

### **Technical Requirements**
- **Scale**: Handle 1M+ transactions/day (100+ TPS peak, 10+ TPS average)
- **Performance**: <200ms end-to-end response time (95th percentile)
- **Availability**: 99.9% uptime (maximum 8.76 hours downtime per year)
- **Security**: Robust data protection, access control, and audit capabilities
- **Global**: Multi-region deployment with data residency compliance
- **Reliability**: Zero data loss, transaction integrity, and idempotency

### **Key Questions to Consider**
- How will you handle traffic spikes that are 10x normal volume?
- What happens when individual components fail?
- How do you ensure data consistency across distributed systems?
- How will you monitor and debug issues in production?
- What's your strategy for rolling out changes safely?
- How do you handle different compliance requirements across regions?

## 🗂️ Session Structure

### **Phase 1: Requirements Clarification (10 minutes)**
- Ask clarifying questions about the business context
- Understand constraints, assumptions, and priorities
- Clarify technical and non-technical requirements
- Identify the most critical success factors

### **Phase 2: High-Level Architecture (20 minutes)**
- Design the overall system architecture
- Identify major components and their responsibilities
- Define data flow and system boundaries
- Explain technology choices and trade-offs

### **Phase 3: Detailed Design (20 minutes)**
- Deep dive into critical system components
- Address scalability, performance, and reliability concerns
- Design for failure scenarios and edge cases
- Consider security, monitoring, and operational aspects

### **Phase 4: Implementation & Operations (10 minutes)**
- Discuss deployment and rollout strategy
- Plan for monitoring, alerting, and debugging
- Consider maintenance, scaling, and evolution
- Address any remaining questions or concerns