Design a Ticketmaster-like ticketing system

Q: Design a Ticketmaster-like ticketing system

This is a System Design interview question from Microsoft for Software Engineer roles. View the full question and solution on PracHub.

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Question

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System Design: Online ticketing platform (Ticketmaster-like)

Design a system that sells tickets for events (concerts/sports) with seat selection.

Core user flows

Browse/search events.
View event details and seat map.
Select 1..k seats.
Temporarily hold/reserve selected seats.
Checkout and pay.
Receive confirmation and ticket(s) (e.g., QR code).

Requirements

Functional

Support both assigned seating (seat map) and optionally general admission (quantity).
Prevent double-selling the same seat.
Seat holds expire (e.g., 5–10 minutes).
Users can cancel; system releases seats.
Integrate with external payment provider.

Non-functional

Very high burst traffic at on-sale time (hundreds of thousands to millions of users).
Low latency for seat map/availability.
Strong correctness: no overselling.
Fairness controls (queues/waiting room), anti-bot protections.
Observability and auditability (who held/bought what).

Deliverables

Explain:

APIs
Data model
High-level architecture
Seat locking/holding strategy and consistency
Scaling, caching, and failure handling
Anti-bot and fairness mechanisms