Design
Distributed Lock Manager (Zookeeper-like)
Design a distributed coordination service that provides mutual exclusion locks and leader election across a cluster of nodes.
This is a Low-Level Design (LLD) problem. New to LLD vs HLD? Start here.
01 - Why interviewers ask this
It's a from-scratch mini-Zookeeper — interviewers check if you understand consensus (Raft/Paxos) and session-based lease expiry, core distributed-systems fundamentals.
02 - Where this system exists in the real world
You interact with this design every day.
ZooKeeper / etcd distributed coordination services
Leader election in distributed databases
Distributed cron job "only one runner" locks
03 - What you'll master
Solve this once. Know it forever.
Understand consensus protocols conceptually
Design session-based lease expiry for locks
Avoid split-brain with quorum-based decisions
04 - What you'll design
6 functional · 3 non-functional requirements.
Acquire and release a named distributed lock
5 more requirements inside
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05 - Companies that ask this
You may face this exact question in your next interview.
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