Designing a flash sale system involves creating a robust and scalable architecture to handle high traffic and provide a seamless experience for users during limited-time sales events. Here’s a high-level overview of the components and considerations for designing a flash sale system:
Understand the problem and establish design scope
- 10K iPhone mobile to sale at very low price.
- 1 Million concurrent user
- User from across the globe
- Service/system hosted on cloud.
- Read Operation 1 Million
- Write 100000 Operation
Components:
- Inventory Service:
- Manages product availability and stock levels.
- Updates inventory in real-time as orders are placed.
- Prevents overselling by reserving stock when items are added to carts.
- User Service:
- Authenticates and manages user accounts.
- Tracks user activity and preferences.
- Handles user interaction with the flash sale.
- Product Service:
- Provides information about products available in the flash sale.
- Handles image and product details retrieval.
- Queueing Service:
- Buffers requests during peak load to prevent system overload.
- Processes requests in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) order.
- Payment Service:
- Processes online payments securely.
- Integrates with different payment gateways.
- Order Management Service:
- Manages orders placed during the flash sale.
- Tracks order status and communicates updates to users.
- Cache:
- Stores frequently accessed data like product details and inventory levels.
- Improves performance by reducing database load.
- CDN (Content Delivery Network):
- Delivers static content like images and stylesheets efficiently.
- Reduces load on the main server and improves responsiveness.
- Monitoring & Logging:
- Tracks system performance and identifies potential issues.
- Provides insights for optimizing the system and preventing future problems.
- Notification System:
- To notified customer sales start
- Booking confirmation
Functionalities:
- Product Listing:
- Displays products available in the flash sale with details like price, description, and images.
- Updates availability based on real-time inventory levels.
- Cart Management:
- Allows users to add and remove items to their cart.
- Reserves stock for items in user carts for a limited time.
- Checkout:
- Enables users to complete their purchase using a secure payment gateway.
- Handles order confirmation and notification.
- Inventory Management:
- Tracks product availability and updates it in real-time.
- Prevents overselling by reserving stock for carts and orders.
- Scalability:
- System architecture should be able to handle high traffic spikes during the flash sale.
- Utilizes technologies like horizontal scaling and load balancing.
- Security:
- Implements robust security measures to protect user data and transactions.
- Follows industry best practices for data encryption and access control.
Challenges:
- High traffic: Flash sales can attract a large number of users simultaneously, leading to potential overload.
- Inventory management: Overselling can harm customer satisfaction and brand reputation.
- Scalability: The system needs to scale efficiently to handle peak traffic without performance degradation.
- Security: Securely handling sensitive user data and transactions is crucial.
Implementation Options:
- Microservices: Breaking down the system into independent services improves scalability and resilience.
- Cloud-based infrastructure: Utilizing cloud platforms offers flexibility and scalability on demand.
- NoSQL databases: Scalable databases like Cassandra or MongoDB can efficiently handle large datasets.
- Load balancing: Distributing traffic across multiple servers ensures smooth operation during peak load.
Examples:
- Amazon Lightning Deals
- Flipkart Big Billion Day
- Myntra End of Season Sale
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