Vertical vs Horizontal Scaling

Summary

Vertical scaling means using a bigger server (more CPU/RAM); horizontal scaling means using more servers — each with very different cost, complexity and ceiling trade-offs.

How to Learn This

1List the practical limits of vertical scaling — there's a biggest server you can buy.
2Learn why horizontal scaling requires your app to be stateless.
3Identify which type of scaling a project you know actually uses today.

Scalability Basics

Load Balancing

More topics in System Design

Scalability Basics Load Balancing Database Replication Database Sharding CAP Theorem Microservices vs Monolith API Gateway Service Discovery Circuit Breaker Pattern Distributed Caching Consistent Hashing Rate Limiting Algorithms Designing a URL Shortener Designing a Rate Limiter

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