Scaling Flashcards
- What is scalability?
Scalability refers to the ability of a system
- What are the two types of scalability?
Vertical Scalability (Scaling Up) and Horizontal Scalability (Scaling Out).
- What is Vertical Scalability?
Vertical Scalability involves adding more resources (CPU
- What is an example of Vertical Scalability?
Upgrading a database server from 16GB to 64GB of RAM.
- What are the pros of Vertical Scalability?
Simple to implement and no changes to the application code.
- What are the cons of Vertical Scalability?
Limited by the hardware capacity of a single machine and can become expensive.
- What is Horizontal Scalability?
Horizontal Scalability involves adding more machines (or nodes) to distribute the load.
- What is an example of Horizontal Scalability?
Adding multiple servers to handle web traffic.
- What are the pros of Horizontal Scalability?
Practically unlimited scalability and high fault tolerance.
- What are the cons of Horizontal Scalability?
More complex to implement and requires distributed system design.
- What are the three dimensions of scalability?
Performance Scalability
- What is Performance Scalability?
The ability to improve response times under increased load.
- What is Capacity Scalability?
The ability to handle a higher volume of users
- What is Geographic Scalability?
The ability to maintain performance across geographically dispersed locations.
- What is Load Balancing?
Load Balancing distributes incoming requests across multiple servers to balance the load and improve performance.
- What is an example of Load Balancing?
A website uses a load balancer to distribute traffic across 5 backend servers.
- What is Caching?
Caching temporarily stores frequently accessed data in a faster storage layer to reduce the load on backend systems.
- What is an example of Caching?
Using a Redis or Memcached server to store session data.
- What is Database Sharding?
Database Sharding divides a database into smaller
- What is an example of Database Sharding?
A large e-commerce platform shards its database by customer region.
- What is Data Replication?
Data Replication creates multiple copies of the same data to improve availability and read performance.
- What is an example of Data Replication?
A primary database replicates its data to a read-only replica for analytical queries.
- What is Partitioning?
Partitioning divides datasets into smaller
- What is an example of Partitioning?
Log files are partitioned by time periods (e.g.
- What is a common scalability challenge related to bottlenecks?
A single slow component in the system (e.g.
- What is the solution to bottlenecks?
Identify and optimize bottlenecks using profiling tools.
- What is the CAP Theorem?
The CAP Theorem states that in distributed systems
- What is a solution to the CAP Theorem challenge?
Choose the right trade-off based on system requirements.
- What is a common challenge in distributed systems?
Adding nodes and designing for distributed systems increases architectural complexity.
- What is a solution to distributed system complexity?
Use proven design patterns and tools like Kubernetes for orchestration.
- What is the difference between Scalability and Performance?
Scalability is the system’s ability to grow
- What are some Load Balancing Algorithms?
Round Robin
- What is an example question about Load Balancing Algorithms?
Explain how a least-connections algorithm works.
- What are some techniques to scale a relational database?
Vertical vs. Horizontal database scaling
- What is an example question about scaling a relational database?
How would you scale a relational database to handle 10x traffic?
- Why are stateless systems easier to scale?
Stateless systems are easier to scale as they don’t maintain session state.
- What is an example question about stateless systems?
Why are stateless APIs preferred in scalable architectures?
- What are some techniques to reduce latency?
Use of CDNs
- What is an example question about reducing latency?
How would you reduce latency for users globally?
- What are some key metrics for monitoring scalability?
Latency
- What are some tools for monitoring scalability?
Prometheus
- What is an example question about monitoring a scaled-out system?
How would you monitor a scaled-out system?
- What is a real-world example of scalability in an e-commerce website?
Traffic spikes during sales are handled using a load balancer
- What is a real-world example of scalability in a video streaming platform?
Delivering content to millions of users globally is achieved by deploying CDNs
- What is a real-world example of scalability in a social media platform?
Handling billions of posts and interactions daily is managed by employing data partitioning
- What is a best practice for scalability?
Plan for growth by designing systems to handle 10x or 100x growth.
- What is another best practice for scalability?
Automate scaling using auto-scaling features in cloud platforms to handle variable workloads.
- What is another best practice for scalability?
Optimize resource utilization by avoiding over-provisioning resources and using monitoring to adjust capacity dynamically.
- What is another best practice for scalability?
Test scalability by performing load testing to identify limits and bottlenecks.
- What is the summary of scalability?
Scalability is a cornerstone of modern system design
