Distributed Systems (398)

Essays on distributed systems, databases, consensus, and fault tolerance.

49 blogs • 225 notes • 124 videos

2026

(77)

2025

(87)

Dec 27

NOTE ORMs are an anti-pattern once you start operating at scale

Distributed Systems #distributed
Dec 24

NOTE PostgreSQL lets you clone a 6GB database in 212 milliseconds

Distributed Systems #distributed
Dec 23

BLOG Clock Synchronization Is a Nightmare

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #clock-synchronization #consistency
Dec 23

NOTE Here's something as simple as a distributed build system (using

Distributed Systems #distributed
Dec 23

NOTE Wrote an essay on why time is such a hard

Distributed Systems #distributed
Dec 17

NOTE Go 1.26 is not out yet, but the release notes

Distributed Systems #distributed
Dec 14

NOTE Wrote an essay on what Kafka does when we add

Distributed Systems #distributed
Dec 13

BLOG When You Increase Kafka Partitions

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #concurrency #networking
Dec 12

NOTE Imagine you are streaming changes from Postgres to Elasticsearch in Go

Distributed Systems #distributed
Dec 10

NOTE Documentation is important, but most do it for the sake

Distributed Systems #distributed
Dec 06

NOTE Cloudflare had another outage, lasting 25 mins, on 5th Dec,

Distributed Systems #distributed
Dec 02

NOTE Py 3.11 is more performant than Py 3.12+ on AWS Lambda

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 25

NOTE Google just tested the largest Kubernetes cluster with 130,000 nodes

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 23

NOTE Rule number 1 of multitenancy: never assume all tenants are good actors

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 19

NOTE Range-based partitioning is like an amoeba

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 16

NOTE Wrote an essay on Blocking Queues, covering the intuition, implementation,

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 14

NOTE Google quantum computers are now solving optimization problems that even

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 12

BLOG Heartbeats in Distributed Systems

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #clock-synchronization #networking
Nov 12

NOTE Wrote an essay on Heartbeats in Distributed Systems, capturing both

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 07

NOTE If you are building or using a distributed database where

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 06

NOTE SQLite 3.51 is out, and here are two things that

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 05

NOTE Cloudflare shared some data on Internet connections at scale, and

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 04

NOTE I am on a spree to explore PostgreSQL internals, and

Distributed Systems #distributed
Nov 03

NOTE LinkedIn leverages Apache Beam to power their Notification Platform

Distributed Systems #distributed
Oct 31

NOTE Active-active setups are fascinating

Distributed Systems #distributed
Oct 20

BLOG How Writes Work in Apache Cassandra

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #consistency #databases
Oct 20

NOTE wrote an essay on how writes work in apache cassandra

Distributed Systems #distributed
Oct 17

BLOG Redis Replication Internals

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #networking #replication
Oct 12

NOTE Here's an interesting fact about Redis - while replications on

Distributed Systems #distributed
Oct 04

NOTE how does a cdn handle content replication

Distributed Systems #distributed
Oct 02

BLOG How Does a CDN Handle Content Replication

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #algorithms #career-growth
Sep 25

NOTE Fun Fact - When you commit a transaction in PostgreSQL,

Distributed Systems #distributed
Sep 24

NOTE grpc wouldn't be possible without http/2, but why

Distributed Systems #distributed
Sep 24

NOTE The strength of a good system is not its complexity,

Distributed Systems #distributed
Sep 20

NOTE Today I learned that we can do joins in Elasticsearch

Distributed Systems #distributed
Sep 18

NOTE There is never only one way to design something, and

Distributed Systems #distributed
Sep 17

NOTE I was going through the internals of MySQL, and I

Distributed Systems #ai
Sep 11

NOTE Yes, CDN improves latencies by caching things closer to the

Distributed Systems #distributed
Sep 07

NOTE why the private network addresses 192.168

Distributed Systems #distributed
Sep 06

BLOG Why Distributed Systems Need Consensus Algorithms Like Raft

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #clock-synchronization #communication
Sep 05

BLOG Why Do Databases Deadlock and How Do They Resolve It

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #concurrency #databases
Sep 05

NOTE When I joined Google, I worked on building a Remote

Distributed Systems #distributed
Sep 04

NOTE For every complex problem, there is often a simpler solution

Distributed Systems #distributed
Sep 03

BLOG Why Eventual Consistency is Preferred in Distributed Systems

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #consistency #networking
Sep 03

NOTE db nugget (4): Picking the wrong database bites you hard in production

Distributed Systems #career-growth
Aug 27

NOTE db nugget (3): in-mem databases do not always lose data upon restart

Distributed Systems #distributed
Aug 26

NOTE db nugget (2): if you want your database to be

Distributed Systems #distributed
Aug 21

NOTE research is addictive; just thinking about one problem in one

Distributed Systems #distributed
Aug 16

NOTE Randomness improves algorithms

Distributed Systems #distributed
Aug 12

NOTE Your MySQL index isn’t slow; it's fragmented :) Databases like

Distributed Systems #distributed
Aug 07

NOTE Should two microservices share a database

Distributed Systems #distributed
Aug 04

NOTE When you need high availability, all you really need to

Distributed Systems #distributed
Aug 02

VIDEO How PayPal's Braintree Solved the Thundering Herd Problem and Simplified Architecture

Distributed Systems #thundering-herd #distributed-systems #microservices
Jul 31

NOTE Timing Attacks are really interesting, and they can be leveraged

Distributed Systems #distributed
Jul 18

VIDEO How GitHub Sharded Their Databases Without Downtime and Broke Their Monolith

Distributed Systems #github #database-sharding #mysql
Jul 11

NOTE How far can you go vibecoding

Distributed Systems #distributed
Jul 11

VIDEO Inside Stripe's Multi-Tier Rate Limiter Architecture

Distributed Systems #rate-limiting #distributed-systems #system-design
Jul 08

NOTE Sometime back, I was going through PostgreSQL internals and found

Distributed Systems #distributed
Jul 06

VIDEO Understanding L4 Load Balancers: Modes, Mechanisms, and Use Cases

Distributed Systems #load-balancing #l4-load-balancer #networking
Jul 03

NOTE High fork times can lead to master unavailability in Redis/Valkey,

Distributed Systems #distributed
Jul 01

NOTE Sure, horizontal scaling is great for handling large loads and

Distributed Systems #ai
Jun 18

NOTE Fun fact - Yes, most databases use B+ trees to

Distributed Systems #distributed
May 29

NOTE Amazon just made Aurora DSQL generally available

Distributed Systems #distributed
May 29

NOTE Most people get this wrong about the master-replica setup

Distributed Systems #distributed
May 23

NOTE Is CDN a reverse proxy, just like a load balancer

Distributed Systems #ai
May 13

NOTE Optimization is a zero-sum game

Distributed Systems #distributed
May 01

NOTE was reading a paper and came across this really good insight

Distributed Systems #distributed
Apr 25

NOTE While reading a paper, I came across the term multi-socket

Distributed Systems #distributed
Apr 24

NOTE If you are into distributed systems, please spend some time

Distributed Systems #distributed
Mar 23

NOTE One of the best courses I took during my college

Distributed Systems #distributed
Mar 21

NOTE Some time back, in my live cohort, we were discussing

Distributed Systems #distributed
Mar 11

NOTE I learned a neat trick in Go

Distributed Systems #distributed
Mar 05

NOTE The "SQL doesn’t scale" argument is a lazy and an absurd generalization

Distributed Systems #distributed
Mar 04

NOTE Netflix reduced connection churn in its API gateway by 10x

Distributed Systems #distributed
Feb 19

NOTE It's surprising how many engineers I talk to today have

Distributed Systems #distributed
Feb 13

NOTE Time-series databases use a really simple algorithm to compress the

Distributed Systems #distributed
Feb 09

VIDEO How Atlassian Reduced Latency by 70% Using the Sidecar Pattern

Distributed Systems #sidecar-pattern #distributed-systems #microservices
Feb 06

NOTE Go 1.24 is expected to be released this month, but

Distributed Systems #go #dice-db
Feb 02

VIDEO How Bitbucket Achieved Read-After-Write Consistency and Reduced Master Database Load by 50%

Distributed Systems #read-after-write-consistency #database-scaling #postgresql
Jan 31

NOTE Should you learn sharding and partitioning if we already have

Distributed Systems #system-design
Jan 26

VIDEO Optimizing Jira: How Atlassian Migrated from JSON to Protobuf for Massive Performance and Cost Benefits

Distributed Systems #json #protobuf #data-serialization
Jan 25

NOTE YAGNI is my favorite principle when I build and implement any system

Distributed Systems #system-design
Jan 19

VIDEO Trello's Migration from RabbitMQ to Kafka for Real-time WebSocket Updates

Distributed Systems #trello #rabbitmq #kafka
Jan 16

NOTE Sometime back, I got curious about image formats and started

Distributed Systems #distributed
Jan 12

VIDEO Atlassian's Cache Invalidation Evolution: From SNS+SQS Push to S3 Pull Architecture

Distributed Systems #cache-invalidation #distributed-systems #aws-sns
Jan 05

VIDEO Load Balancers Are Not Magic: Dissecting the Atlassian Outage

Distributed Systems #load-balancer #atlassian-outage #aws-elb
Jan 01

NOTE If you plan to learn in public in 2025, spend more time learning than sharing.

Distributed Systems #software-engineering #asli-engineering #career-growth

2024

(66)

2023

(41)

2022

(93)

2021

(23)

Nov 28

BLOG Multi-Master Replication - Why Conflicts Happen

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases #replication
Nov 03

BLOG Multi-Master Replication - Scaling Writes Across Geographies

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases #replication
Oct 03

BLOG Monotonic Reads - How Asynchronous Replication Creates Wormholes

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #replication
Oct 03

NOTE Essay : Preventing Wormholes in a Distributed Datastore

Distributed Systems #system-design #distributed-systems
Sep 22

BLOG Read-Your-Writes Consistency

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #consistency #replication
Sep 22

NOTE How would you feel when you posted on a Social

Distributed Systems #system-design #distributed-systems
Sep 07

BLOG What Happens When a Master or Replica Fails

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases #replication
Aug 23

NOTE Recently I wrote a short snippet about setting up a

Distributed Systems #system-design #distributed-systems
Aug 21

NOTE Ever wondered how the Replication happens, how a new Replica

Distributed Systems #system-design #distributed-systems
Aug 15

BLOG Replication Formats - Statement vs Row-based

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases #networking
Aug 15

NOTE Ever wonder how replication happens between Master and Replica

Distributed Systems #system-design #distributed-systems
Aug 10

BLOG Replication Strategies - Synchronous, Asynchronous, and Semi-Synchronous

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #consistency #networking
Aug 07

BLOG Master-Replica Replication

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases #replication
Jul 19

BLOG Decoding Durability - The D in ACID

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #consistency #databases
Jul 07

BLOG Decoding Isolation - The I in ACID

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #concurrency #consistency
Jul 02

BLOG Decoding Atomicity - The A in ACID

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #consistency #databases
Jul 02

BLOG Decoding Consistency - The C in ACID

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #consistency #databases
Jun 22

BLOG Architectural Patterns for Distributed Systems

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases #system-design
Jun 17

BLOG Fallacies of Distributed Computing Every Engineer Should Know

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #networking
May 02

VIDEO Scaling a Taxonomy Service and Database: Architecture and Bottlenecks

Distributed Systems #system-design #database-scaling #caching
Apr 19

BLOG Modeling Udemy's Categories in a Relational Database

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases #python-internals
Apr 05

VIDEO Designing End-to-End Message Encryption: From First Principles to Real-World Architecture

Distributed Systems #encryption #cryptography #system-design
Apr 01

VIDEO Designing a Scalable Notification Service for Instagram

Distributed Systems #system-design #distributed-systems #kafka

2020

(8)

Nov 29

BLOG The 2Q Algorithm - Addressing LRU's Sub-Optimality

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #caching #databases
Aug 23

BLOG Implementing LFU in O(1)

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #caching #memory-management
Jul 19

BLOG Bitcask - A Log-Structured fast KV store

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #data-structures #databases
May 31

BLOG The RUM Conjecture - Storage System Trade-offs

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #consistency #cryptography
May 24

BLOG Consistent Hashing - What It Is and How to Implement It

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #caching #data-structures
May 03

BLOG Copy-On-Write - When to Use It, When to Avoid It

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases #memory-management
Apr 26

BLOG How MySQL Avoids Performance Hits from Table Scans

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #caching #databases
Apr 05

BLOG Sliding Window Rate Limiting - Design and Implementation

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems

2017

(3)

Mar 24

BLOG Analyzing MongoDB Pagination Performance Differences

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases #evaluation
Mar 23

BLOG MongoDB Pagination - Skip is Slow

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases
Mar 22

BLOG MongoDB Pagination - Two Approaches You Need to Know

Distributed Systems #distributed-systems #databases