Distributed
URL Shortener

Horizontally scalable URL shortening service
optimized for low-latency redirect resolution.

enter a valid URL

Technical Overview
ID Allocation
Globally unique IDs are pre-generated and buffered across multiple layers for low-latency assignment. Each node holds a local pool replenished asynchronously — no coordinator in the hot path.
pre-buffered base62 async refill
Read Path
Immutable short-link mappings resolved through a three-tier cache hierarchy — in-process LRU, global Redis, then persistent storage as fallback. P99 redirects resolve in under 5 ms.
in-process LRU redis global < 5ms p99
Scalability
Stateless services orchestrated with Kubernetes. Horizontal pod autoscaling responds to request rate. No shared mutable state between instances — any node can handle any request.
Kubernetes stateless HPA
Full system design, ADRs, and architecture diagrams View full architecture on GitHub →