IntermediateSystem-Design
30 min
Design a Distributed Caching Layer
CachingConsistencyNetworkingReliability
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Interview Question
Design a distributed cache that supports eviction policies, consistency across nodes, replication, and client-side failover.
Key Points to Cover
- Eviction policies (LRU, LFU, TTL) and hot key protection
- Replication: async vs sync; consistency models
- Sharding strategies (consistent hashing, rendezvous)
- Client failover and discovery mechanisms
- Observability and cache hit/miss metrics
Evaluation Rubric
Clear eviction and hot key plan25% weight
Replication & consistency trade-offs25% weight
Scalable sharding strategy25% weight
Operational visibility & failover25% weight
Hints
- 💡Think about cache stampede protection strategies.
Potential Follow-up Questions
- ❓How would you implement read-through vs write-through?
- ❓How to handle cold start issues?
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