System Design Basics Quiz

The primary goal of system design is to ensure that the systems are scalable and reliable, effectively addressing user requirements. This involves creating architectures that can handle growth and maintain performance, ensuring that users have a consistent and satisfactory experience while using the system.

A load balancer is a crucial component in network architecture that efficiently distributes incoming traffic across multiple servers. By balancing the load, it ensures optimal resource utilization, enhances performance, and increases reliability by preventing any single server from becoming overwhelmed, thus improving overall system responsiveness and availability.

A cache is a temporary storage area that holds copies of frequently accessed data. By keeping this data readily available, a cache minimizes the need for repeated database queries, thereby improving access speed and overall system performance. It acts as an intermediary between the database and the user, enhancing efficiency.

ACID is a set of properties that guarantee reliable processing of database transactions. Atomicity ensures transactions are all-or-nothing; consistency maintains data integrity; isolation prevents concurrent transactions from interfering; and durability ensures that once a transaction is committed, it remains so, even in the event of a system failure.

NoSQL databases are designed to store and retrieve data in a flexible format, often using key-value pairs. This allows for high scalability and performance, accommodating a variety of data types and structures, unlike traditional relational databases that rely on fixed schemas and tables. Key-value storage is particularly useful for large-scale applications.

Vertical scaling refers to enhancing the capacity of a single server by adding more resources, such as CPU, RAM, or storage. This approach allows the server to handle increased workloads without the complexity of managing multiple servers, making it a straightforward solution for improving performance and efficiency.

Microservice architecture is characterized by breaking down an application into multiple small, independent services that can communicate with each other. This approach allows for greater flexibility, scalability, and easier maintenance, as each service can be developed, deployed, and updated independently, enhancing overall system resilience and reducing the risk of system-wide failures.

API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of rules and tools that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. It defines the methods and data formats that applications can use to request and exchange information, enabling developers to integrate functionalities and services seamlessly.

Horizontal scaling involves adding more machines to a system, which enhances fault tolerance by distributing workloads across multiple servers. This setup ensures that if one server fails, others can continue to handle requests, improving overall system reliability and performance under varying loads.

A replica serves as a temporary copy of data, positioned nearer to the user to enhance access speed. By reducing the distance data must travel, replicas improve performance and responsiveness, making it easier for users to retrieve information quickly without straining the original data source.

Eventual consistency refers to a model in distributed systems where, after a period of time, all updates to the data will propagate through the system, ensuring that all replicas of the data will converge to the same value. This allows for temporary inconsistencies but guarantees consistency eventually, balancing availability and performance.

WebSocket is a protocol designed for real-time communication over a single, long-lived connection. Unlike HTTP, which is request-response based, WebSocket allows for full-duplex communication, enabling data to flow freely between the server and client. This makes it ideal for applications that require instant updates, such as chat applications and live notifications.