Design
YouTube
Design YouTube — video upload, transcoding pipeline, search, recommendations, comments, monetization, and global CDN delivery.
This is a Low-Level Design (LLD) problem. New to LLD vs HLD? Start here.
01 - Why interviewers ask this
It's Netflix's harder sibling — user-generated uploads add transcoding-pipeline design on top of adaptive streaming, testing whether you think about the ingest side, not just playback.
02 - Where this system exists in the real world
You interact with this design every day.
YouTube / Vimeo video-sharing platforms
Corporate video hosting and training platforms
Live-streaming and VOD hybrid platforms
03 - What you'll master
Solve this once. Know it forever.
Design a video transcoding/ingest pipeline
Serve adaptive streams via CDN
Model view counts, comments, and recommendations
04 - What you'll design
8 functional · 4 non-functional requirements.
Upload videos of any length (up to 12 hours)
7 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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See all requirements, use staged hints, run your code, and compare with community discussions - all on the same canvas.