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Netflix (Video Streaming) vs URL Shortener

Netflix (Video Streaming)

Netflix (Video Streaming)

CDN-first, adaptive bitrate, recommendation.

Components (10)

  • Client
  • Open Connect
  • Zuul
  • Playback Service
  • Catalog Service
  • Recommendation
  • Kafka
  • S3
  • Cassandra
  • Encoding Pipeline

Headline numbers

  • Aggregate egress~1 Pbps
  • Library storage (all encodings)~5 PB
  • CDN cache hit rate target>95%
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 Netflix (Video Streaming)
  • Open Connect
  • Kafka
  • S3
In both
  • Client
  • Api Gateway
  • Service
  • Database
Only in URL Shortener
  • Redis

Flow shape

Netflix (Video Streaming) flows
  • Open home screen5 steps
  • Start playback (CDN warm)5 steps
  • Start playback (CDN cold)5 steps
  • CDN cache cold (regional outage)5 steps
  • Catalog Service is down4 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