intermediateReal System Design Problems
Design a real-time Leaderboard — ranking millions of players by score.
The 'sorted data at scale' problem: a relational database struggles with real-time rank queries at scale, which is exactly why Redis sorted sets (ZADD/ZRANK/ZREVRANGE) are the standard answer, giving O(log n) rank/update instead of a full sort on every query. At senior level, the probe extends to multi-dimensional rankings (daily/weekly/all-time) and historical leaderboard snapshots.
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Generate a complete, structured system design answer — requirements, capacity estimation, API design, architecture, database choice, scaling, caching, fault tolerance, security, trade-offs, and more, walked through the way a strong senior engineer would in a real interview.
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