Design a scalable logging system

Q: Design a scalable logging system

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design scalable, reliable logging and observability infrastructure, testing competencies in distributed systems, ingestion pipelines, indexing and data modeling, storage and retention policies, multi-tenancy, and performance/reliability trade-offs.

Q: How do I approach System Design interview questions?

System Design questions require understanding of core concepts and practice. PracHub provides solutions with explanations to help you master system design interviews.

Question

Design a centralized logging system for a large organization.

The system should:

Collect logs from many applications/hosts (different languages/environments)
Support near-real-time search and filtering (e.g., by service, host, time range, severity)
Provide retention policies (e.g., 7 days hot, 90 days archived)
Handle high write throughput and bursts
Be reliable (no/limited data loss) and multi-tenant (different teams)

Discuss requirements, high-level architecture, data model/indexing, scaling, reliability, and trade-offs.

Design a scalable logging system

Quick Overview

Solution

Comments (0)