#06Cloud File Storage (Dropbox)
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WorkflowCanvas
Dropbox logoDropbox System
MediumData Systems
35–50 min

Cloud File Storage (Dropbox)

Design a cloud sync and file storage architecture featuring block-level chunking, deduplication, delta synchronization, and metadata version control.

Scale & Traffic50PB storage · 500M registered users
Monthly Cloud Budget$15,000/month
Latency Target (P99)< 50ms Realtime SLA
Availability SLA99.99% Multi-AZ Active
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System Requirements

  • Chunk large files into 4MB blocks to support resumable uploads
  • Content-addressed deduplication (SHA-256 hash per block)
  • Instant metadata sync across all connected user devices
  • 99.999999999% (11 9's) data durability

Graded Constraints

01Budget ceiling: $15,000/month
02Object Storage (Blob storage) for file chunks
03Relational or Document DB for metadata, directories, and revision trees
04Message queue for change notification fanout to client sync workers

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Open this challenge in the interactive system design playground and satisfy all architecture constraints.

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Cloud File Storage (Dropbox) — System Design Problem | Mimir Nest