Technical interview guide
URL Shortener Design
Designing a URL shortener: unique keys, redirect semantics, cache TTLs, click accounting off the GET path, and open-redirect abuse.
- Read
- 38 min
- Practice MCQs
- 25
- Interview QA
- 25
- Edition
- v4
- Editorial status
- Reviewed
- Relevant for
- Agentic AI EngineerBackend EngineerBlockchain DeveloperCloud ArchitectCybersecurity EngineerData ArchitectData EngineerDevOps EngineerForward Deployed Engineer (FDE)Full-Stack DeveloperIdentity and Access Management (IAM) EngineerMachine Learning EngineerPlatform EngineerSecurity ArchitectSite Reliability EngineerSoftware EngineerSolutions ArchitectTechnical Product Manager
Scope: HTTP per RFC 9110 and RFC 6585; UUIDs per RFC 9562; uniqueness illustrated with PostgreSQL unique indexes and Redis GET; abuse controls per OWASP and Unicode TR36.
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