Overview
What this challenge is about.
Design the service end-to-end: storage (Spanner / CockroachDB / FoundationDB — you choose), counter scheme (sharded counters with periodic reconciliation vs strongly-consistent single key), API contract, replication topology across 3 regions, partition behavior, failover semantics. Show the failure-mode table (region down, partition, leader failover, clock skew). Stress the over-consumption invariant. Deliver a 14-page design doc, an architecture diagram, a back-of-envelope cost estimate, and a failure-mode matrix.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Design a strong-consistency distributed counter service handling 50k decrements/second across 3 regions with documented failure-mode behavior.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Choose a distributed database based on real consistency-availability-partition trade-offs
- Design a sharded counter that doesn't over-consume under failure
- Reason about failover semantics and partition behavior concretely
- Estimate distributed-database costs at scale
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
Careers
Roles this prepares you for.
Real titles. Real skill bridges. Pick the one closest to your trajectory.