Design a URL Shortener

Build a small but complete design covering redirects, storage, analytics, and abuse prevention.

30 min

3 sections

url-shortener

redirects

analytics

01. Core design

Section 1 of 3

The write path creates a short code and stores the mapping. The read path redirects quickly. Redirects are high-volume reads, so the hot path should use cache and avoid synchronous analytics writes.

text

POST /v1/links
{
  "longUrl": "https://example.com/campaign",
  "customAlias": "summer-sale",
  "expiresAt": "2026-09-01T00:00:00Z"
}

GET /summer-sale
  -> cache lookup
  -> database fallback
  -> 302 redirect
  -> async click event

Deployments and Data Migrations

Design a Social News Feed

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