System Design

You’re waiting in line for concert tickets. You see “Your current position in line: 50,000” and start wondering what technology powers this. As a developer, you might assume these high-traffic systems use modern real-time tech like WebSockets or Server-Sent Events (SSE). After all, they’re designed for real-time communication, right? Well, not quite. When you’re dealing with hundreds of thousands of simultaneous users, the secret to stability often lies in a much simpler method: HTTP Polling. ...

You’re trying to buy tickets for a massive concert. You click “buy” and suddenly find yourself stuck in a digital line. As a developer, your first thought might be to use a Message Queue like Kafka. It’s literally called a queue, and it’s designed to handle requests in order-perfect, right? Well, not quite. When you’re dealing with large-scale, first-come-first-served events, a Message Queue alone often falls short. The missing piece? User Experience. ...