AdvancedSystem-Design
45 min
Design a Video Conferencing Platform
MediaRealtimeNetworkingSecurity
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Interview Question
Design a scalable video conferencing service like Zoom with low latency, adaptive quality, and security.
Key Points to Cover
- Media servers (SFU vs MCU) trade-offs
- Adaptive bitrate streaming and bandwidth estimation
- Signaling: session negotiation, ICE/STUN/TURN
- Security: E2EE, key rotation, identity
- Scalability: regional PoPs, horizontal scaling
Evaluation Rubric
Sound media server architecture25% weight
Low-latency and adaptive streaming25% weight
Strong E2EE and identity management25% weight
Global scalability and multi-region25% weight
Hints
- 💡Consider trade-offs between SFU and MCU.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- ⚠️Over-reliance on MCU architecture for scalability, leading to server bottlenecks.
- ⚠️Insufficiently robust bandwidth estimation, resulting in poor quality or frequent disconnections on unstable networks.
- ⚠️Ignoring the complexities of network traversal and failing to implement STUN/TURN effectively, leading to connectivity issues.
- ⚠️Treating security as an afterthought rather than an integral part of the design, leading to vulnerabilities.
- ⚠️Underestimating the signaling overhead and latency implications for large group calls.
Potential Follow-up Questions
- ❓How to reduce join latency?
- ❓How to scale breakout rooms?
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