> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Real World Architectures > Learn from how real-world systems are designed at scale Studying real-world architectures is one of the best ways to learn system design principles. These articles showcase how major companies have solved complex scalability challenges. ## How to Study These Architectures **Don't focus on nitty gritty details for the following articles, instead:** * Identify shared principles, common technologies, and patterns within these articles * Study what problems are solved by each component, where it works, where it doesn't * Review the lessons learned ![Twitter Timeline Architecture](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer/master/images/TcUo2fw.png) *Source: [Twitter timelines at scale](https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Twitter-Timeline-Scalability)* ## Data Processing Systems | System | Description | Reference | | ------------- | ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **MapReduce** | Distributed data processing from Google | [research.google.com](http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/zh-CN/us/archive/mapreduce-osdi04.pdf) | | **Spark** | Distributed data processing from Databricks | [slideshare.net](http://www.slideshare.net/AGrishchenko/apache-spark-architecture) | | **Storm** | Distributed data processing from Twitter | [slideshare.net](http://www.slideshare.net/previa/storm-16094009) | ## Data Store Systems | System | Description | Reference | | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Bigtable** | Distributed column-oriented database from Google | [harvard.edu](http://www.read.seas.harvard.edu/~kohler/class/cs239-w08/chang06bigtable.pdf) | | **HBase** | Open source implementation of Bigtable | [slideshare.net](http://www.slideshare.net/alexbaranau/intro-to-hbase) | | **Cassandra** | Distributed column-oriented database from Facebook | [slideshare.net](http://www.slideshare.net/planetcassandra/cassandra-introduction-features-30103666) | | **DynamoDB** | Document-oriented database from Amazon | [harvard.edu](http://www.read.seas.harvard.edu/~kohler/class/cs239-w08/decandia07dynamo.pdf) | | **MongoDB** | Document-oriented database | [slideshare.net](http://www.slideshare.net/mdirolf/introduction-to-mongodb) | | **Spanner** | Globally-distributed database from Google | [research.google.com](http://research.google.com/archive/spanner-osdi2012.pdf) | | **Memcached** | Distributed memory caching system | [slideshare.net](http://www.slideshare.net/oemebamo/introduction-to-memcached) | | **Redis** | Distributed memory caching system with persistence and value types | [slideshare.net](http://www.slideshare.net/dvirsky/introduction-to-redis) | ## File Systems | System | Description | Reference | | ----------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Google File System (GFS)** | Distributed file system | [research.google.com](http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/zh-CN/us/archive/gfs-sosp2003.pdf) | | **Hadoop File System (HDFS)** | Open source implementation of GFS | [apache.org](http://hadoop.apache.org/docs/stable/hadoop-project-dist/hadoop-hdfs/HdfsDesign.html) | ## Infrastructure Systems | System | Description | Reference | | ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Chubby** | Lock service for loosely-coupled distributed systems from Google | [research.google.com](http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/research.google.com/en/us/archive/chubby-osdi06.pdf) | | **Dapper** | Distributed systems tracing infrastructure | [research.google.com](http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/36356.pdf) | | **Kafka** | Pub/sub message queue from LinkedIn | [slideshare.net](http://www.slideshare.net/mumrah/kafka-talk-tri-hug) | | **Zookeeper** | Centralized infrastructure and services enabling synchronization | [slideshare.net](http://www.slideshare.net/sauravhaloi/introduction-to-apache-zookeeper) | ## Company Architectures ### Tech Giants Learn about Amazon's distributed systems architecture Explore Google's approach to building scalable systems Scaling memcached, TAO distributed data store, and photo storage A 360 degree view of the entire Netflix stack ### Social Media & Communication | Company | Key Topics | Reference | | ------------- | ----------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Twitter** | Timelines at scale, 150M active users, 300K QPS | [Making Twitter 10000% faster](http://highscalability.com/scaling-twitter-making-twitter-10000-percent-faster)
[Timelines at scale](https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Twitter-Timeline-Scalability) | | **Instagram** | 14 million users, terabytes of photos | [Architecture](http://highscalability.com/blog/2011/12/6/instagram-architecture-14-million-users-terabytes-of-photos.html) | | **WhatsApp** | Architecture Facebook bought for \$19 billion | [Architecture](http://highscalability.com/blog/2014/2/26/the-whatsapp-architecture-facebook-bought-for-19-billion.html) | | **Pinterest** | From 0 to 10s of billions of page views | [Scaling Pinterest](http://highscalability.com/blog/2013/4/15/scaling-pinterest-from-0-to-10s-of-billions-of-page-views-a.html) | ### Other Notable Architectures | Company | Key Topics | Reference | | ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Uber** | Real-time market platform, scaling to 2000 engineers | [Scaling Uber](http://highscalability.com/blog/2015/9/14/how-uber-scales-their-real-time-market-platform.html) | | **Dropbox** | How Dropbox scaled their infrastructure | [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE4gwstWhmc) | | **YouTube** | YouTube scalability and architecture | [Scalability](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5WVu624fY8) | | **Stack Overflow** | Stack Overflow architecture | [Architecture](http://highscalability.com/blog/2009/8/5/stack-overflow-architecture.html) | | **Salesforce** | Handling 1.3 billion transactions a day | [Architecture](http://highscalability.com/blog/2013/9/23/salesforce-architecture-how-they-handle-13-billion-transacti.html) | ### Specialized Systems | Company | Specialty | Reference | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **ESPN** | Operating at 100,000 duh nuh nuhs per second | [Architecture](http://highscalability.com/blog/2013/11/4/espns-architecture-at-scale-operating-at-100000-duh-nuh-nuhs.html) | | **Flickr** | Photo sharing architecture | [Architecture](http://highscalability.com/flickr-architecture) | | **Tumblr** | 15 billion page views a month | [Architecture](http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/2/13/tumblr-architecture-15-billion-page-views-a-month-and-harder.html) | | **TripAdvisor** | 40M visitors, 200M dynamic page views, 30TB data | [Architecture](http://highscalability.com/blog/2011/6/27/tripadvisor-architecture-40m-visitors-200m-dynamic-page-view.html) | | **Cinchcast** | Producing 1,500 hours of audio every day | [Architecture](http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/7/16/cinchcast-architecture-producing-1500-hours-of-audio-every-d.html) | | **DataSift** | Realtime datamining at 120,000 tweets per second | [Architecture](http://highscalability.com/blog/2011/11/29/datasift-architecture-realtime-datamining-at-120000-tweets-p.html) |