Design Netflix
HardSystem design · Media Streaming · Netflix
Design Netflix: a subscription service streaming a licensed, finite catalogue of movies and shows. Focus on playback (fast start, adaptive bitrate, device-specific manifests, DRM), the CDN strategy that carries the traffic, the homepage and personalisation, and continue-watching state. Contrast with YouTube, where the hard part is user uploads and transcoding at ingest. Out of scope: payments and sign-up, live events, and recommendation model internals.
Requirements
- Serve video globally through a CDN with adaptive bitrate streaming
- Support catalogue metadata, regional rights, entitlement, multiple profiles and continue-watching
- Generate personalised homepage rows from recommendations
- Discuss encoding, DRM, regional availability, and player/server observability