1. Requirements Gathering: Convert long URLs into short URLs. Retrieve the original URL from the shortened one. Ensure uniqueness and avoid collisions. Handle high read-to-write traffic. 2. High-Level Design: Use a hashing algorithm (e.g., Base62 encoding) to generate short unique identifiers. Store mappings in a database (SQL/NoSQL). Use caching (Redis) for quick lookups of frequently accessed URLs. Implement a load balancer to distribute traffic. 3. Database Design: Table: ShortenedURLs (id, long_url, short_code, created_at, expiration_date). Use an auto-increment ID or UUID to generate short codes. 4. Scalability Considerations: Sharding & Partitioning for database scaling. CDN (Content Delivery Network) to reduce latency. Asynchronous processing for analytics and logging. 5. Edge Cases Handling: Expired links should return a 404. Prevent spam and abuse with rate limiting. Would you like another type of question, such as coding or behavioral?