Abordar um problema de design de sistema (em entrevistas ou trabalho real) se beneficia de um método estruturado — esclarecendo requisitos, estimando escala, projetando de forma de alto nível para detalhada, e discutindo trade-offs. Uma abordagem metódica leva a designs melhores.
Uma abordagem estruturada
1. CLARIFY REQUIREMENTS → functional (what it does) + non-functional (scale, latency,
availability, consistency); scope it (don't assume — ask questions, narrow the problem)
2. ESTIMATE SCALE → users, requests/sec, data volume, read/write ratio → informs the design
3. HIGH-LEVEL DESIGN → main components and data flow (clients, services, databases, caches,
load balancers, queues); draw the architecture
4. DETAILED DESIGN → data model/schema; key components in depth; APIs; specific challenges
5. SCALE & OPTIMIZE → identify bottlenecks; apply techniques (caching, load balancing,
sharding, replication, async); discuss TRADE-OFFS
6. ADDRESS concerns → reliability, consistency, edge cases, failures
