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Open Dropbox (File Sync) →Open URL Shortener →

Dropbox (File Sync) vs URL Shortener

Dropbox (File Sync)

Dropbox (File Sync)

Chunking, content-addressed dedup, multi-device sync.

Components (7)

  • Desktop Client
  • API Gateway
  • Metadata Service
  • Upload Service
  • Chunk Store
  • MySQL
  • Notification Service

Headline numbers

  • Sync ops / sec (avg)~50K
  • Raw bytes uploaded / day~350 TB (post-dedup)
  • Bandwidth at peak~30 Gbps
URL Shortener

URL Shortener

Hashing, key generation, read-heavy caching.

Components (6)

  • Client
  • API Gateway
  • Write Service
  • Read Service
  • Redis
  • Postgres

Headline numbers

  • Write QPS (avg)~1,200/sec
  • Read QPS (avg)~120,000/sec
  • Storage per year~5 TB

Key differences

Only in Dropbox (File Sync)
  • Chunk Store
  • Notification Service
In both
  • Client
  • Api Gateway
  • Service
  • Database
Only in URL Shortener
  • Redis

Flow shape

Dropbox (File Sync) flows
  • Upload a modified file7 steps
  • Tiny edit to a 1GB file4 steps
  • ⚠ Metadata Service is down3 steps
URL Shortener flows
  • Shorten a URL3 steps
  • Resolve short URL (cache hit)3 steps
  • Resolve short URL (cache miss)4 steps
  • ⚠ Redis is down4 steps