📌 some materials to help you master this system design problem (visual explanations and diagrams are 🔥 there so have a look as this is smth you’ll need in your interviews):

• ByteByteGo’s blog on it: https://bytebytego.com/courses/system-design-interview/design-youtube
• HelloInterview’s material on it (very much worth a read IMO): https://www.hellointerview.com/learn/system-design/problem-breakdowns/youtube

YouTube is massive and we aren’t just showing videos; we need to think of upload, storage, transcoding, serving, recommendations, search...

Understanding the Scope

First, what are we really trying to do here? Let's nail down the key goals and features:

• Video Upload: Users should easily upload videos of various formats.
• Video Processing: The system should convert videos to different formats (transcoding) for various devices and bandwidths.
• Video Storage: Efficiently store a massive library of videos.
• Video Streaming: Provide a smooth, low-latency streaming experience to millions of concurrent users.
• Video Playback: Easily play videos on different devices.
• Search: Enable users to find videos quickly.
• Recommendations: Suggest relevant videos to users.
• Comments and Social Features: Allow users to interact with videos (likes, comments, subscriptions).
• Monetization: Displaying ads on the video to monetize the content

Core Components - The YouTube Jigsaw Puzzle

We can tackle this beast by breaking it down into core pieces:

1. Client: The apps (web, mobile, TV) the user interacts with.