Scalable System Architectures

Description

Overview of scalable system architectures, comparing vertical and horizontal scaling, their advantages, limitations, and practical applications, including the role of load balancers and stateless web servers.
Eladio Rocha
Quiz by Eladio Rocha, updated 17 days ago
Eladio Rocha
Created by Eladio Rocha 18 days ago
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Resource summary

Question 1

Question
In which scenario is a single-server design most appropriate?
Answer
  • For highly critical commercial applications
  • For large-scale systems with significant traffic
  • For small, low-priority tools or personal websites
  • For applications requiring high availability

Question 2

Question
What is a key drawback of a single-server design for commercial systems?
Answer
  • High cost of scaling
  • Single point of failure
  • Complexity of setup
  • Redundant database connections

Question 3

Question
What does vertical scaling involve?
Answer
  • Adding more servers to distribute the load
  • Increasing the capacity of an existing server
  • Implementing a load balancer to manage traffic
  • Dividing a database into multiple shards

Question 4

Question
What is a limitation of vertical scaling?
Answer
  • It requires complex database partitioning.
  • It is limited by the maximum capacity of a single server.
  • It cannot handle stateless requests efficiently.
  • It increases the number of servers to maintain.

Question 5

Question
How does horizontal scaling differ from vertical scaling?
Answer
  • Horizontal scaling increases the size of servers, while vertical scaling adds more servers.
  • Horizontal scaling involves adding more servers, while vertical scaling increases the size of existing servers.
  • Horizontal scaling reduces server maintenance, while vertical scaling increases it.
  • Horizontal scaling focuses on database optimization, while vertical scaling focuses on application layers.

Question 6

Question
What component is essential for horizontal scaling to distribute traffic across servers?
Answer
  • Database replicas
  • A load balancer
  • A central storage system
  • An additional web server

Question 7

Question
Why must web servers in a horizontally scaled system be stateless?
Answer
  • To ensure they can share storage efficiently
  • To allow any server to handle any user request independently
  • To improve CPU utilization across the system
  • To minimize database load during high traffic

Question 8

Question
What is a primary advantage of horizontal scaling over vertical scaling?
Answer
  • It reduces system complexity.
  • It eliminates single points of failure.
  • It is more cost-effective for small-scale systems.
  • It requires fewer machines to maintain.

Question 9

Question
In which scenario is vertical scaling likely sufficient?
Answer
  • A globally distributed e-commerce platform
  • A personal website with low traffic
  • A real-time video streaming service
  • A high-frequency financial trading application

Question 10

Question
What is a downside of horizontal scaling?
Answer
  • It limits the ability to add more servers.
  • It increases the likelihood of server failure.
  • It introduces more components to maintain.
  • It restricts redundancy in the system.

Question 11

Question
What design principle should guide the choice of system architecture?
Answer
  • Prioritize redundancy regardless of cost.
  • Build the simplest architecture that meets the requirements.
  • Always opt for horizontal scaling, even for small systems.
  • Avoid using load balancers to minimize complexity.
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