Diagrammatic

Design an API Rate Limiter — System Design Interview Practice

Design a rate limiting system to control the number of requests a user can make to an API. Work through the requirements, architecture trade-offs, and an interactive design review.

Requirements and concepts to consider

  • Limit requests per user/IP within time windowRequirement
  • Support different rate limit tiersRequirement
  • Provide clear error messages when limit exceededRequirement
  • Track and reset limits per time windowRequirement
  • Support distributed rate limitingRequirement
  • Monitor and alert on rate limit breachesRequirement
  • Handle millions of requests per secondRequirement
  • rate limitingConcept to explore
  • infrastructureConcept to explore
  • distributed systemsConcept to explore
  • redisConcept to explore
Diagrammatic — system design practice and architecture review.