Design a URL shortening service

Q: Design a URL shortening service

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

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Question

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Design a URL shortening service similar to TinyURL.

Requirements

Functional

Create a short URL for a given long URL.
Redirect: given a short code, redirect to the original long URL.
Custom aliases (optional): user can request a specific short code.
Expiration (optional): links may expire after a TTL.
Basic analytics (optional): clicks per link, referrer, country/device.

Non-functional

Low latency redirects (p99 in tens of milliseconds).
High availability.
Prevent abuse (spam/malware, high-rate creation).
Handle large scale (assume billions of URLs, high read:write ratio).

Deliverables

APIs, data model, and end-to-end flow.
Short code generation strategy.
Storage and caching design.
Scaling, partitioning, and reliability choices.
Handling collisions, deletions/expirations, and abuse.

Design a URL shortening service

Requirements

Functional

Non-functional

Deliverables

Solution

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