System Design Principles
Let’s look at some principles of system design.
We'll cover the following...
A system is a collection of components that work together to achieve a common goal. Designing a system involves making decisions about the components and their interactions to meet specific requirements. The following system design principles help ensure that a system is designed for performance, reliability, and security.
In order to successfully create a robust and efficient system, you must taken into consideration multiple system design principles. The principles we'll review in this lesson are:
Modularity
Scalability
Fault tolerance
Maintainability
Security and privacy
These principles will guide you as cross-functional groups all contribute to a solution design. For instance, a single engineering team that owns infrastructure may be focused mostly on performance and scalability, a separate engineering team may be mostly focused on a modular approach as they build in features, and the security team jumps in to advocate for a secure system.
Each contribution from cross-functional groups can be combined to create a truly great solution.
Modularity
Modularity involves breaking down complex systems into smaller, more manageable parts. By dividing a system into modules, each with a specific responsibility, it becomes easier to design, develop, test, and maintain the system. Each module should have a clear interface with other modules, allowing them to interact without unnecessary complexity. This principle helps ensure that a system is flexible and adaptable to changes.
Microservices architecture: Microservices are an architectural style that involves breaking down a large application into smaller independent services. Each service can be developed and deployed independently, making it easier to scale and maintain the system. For example, Netflix uses a microservices architecture to handle its large user base and complex business requirements.
Coupling: Tight coupling and loose coupling are two design principles that refer to the level of interdependence between different components in a system. Tight coupling can be appropriate in some cases, such as in real-time systems where performance is critical, while loose coupling is often preferred in more complex systems that require flexibility and scalability.
In a tightly coupled system, the components are highly dependent on each other, and changes to one component can have a significant impact on the others. This can make it difficult to make changes to the system without unintended consequences.
In a loosely coupled system, the components are designed to be more independent of each other, with well-defined interfaces that allow for changes to be made to one component without affecting others. This makes the ...