Design a Netflix-like video streaming service
Overview
This question evaluates competency in designing large-scale streaming platforms, focusing on distributed systems, content storage and encoding pipelines, CDN-based content delivery, playback and catalog APIs, DRM, scalability, availability, and monitoring.
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Dec 15, 2025, 12:00 AM
Software Engineer
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System Design
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System Design Prompt
Design a large-scale video streaming platform similar to Netflix.
Core user journeys
- Users browse a catalog (home page rows, search).
- Users press play and stream video reliably.
- Continue watching across devices.
- Recommendations/personalization (high level is fine).
Business/technical goals
- Low startup time (time-to-first-frame), minimal buffering.
- High availability globally.
- Support multiple devices and network conditions.
- Handle large catalog and high QPS during peak.
Clarifications you may assume
- Both VOD (video on demand) and trailers.
- Subscription-based access (no ads required unless you choose).
- DRM is required at a basic level.
What to cover
- High-level architecture and key components.
- Data model / APIs (at least playback + catalog).
- Storage/encoding/packaging pipeline.
- Content delivery strategy (CDN, caching).
- Scalability, reliability, monitoring, and tradeoffs.
Solution
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