The Question
DesignReal-time Scalable Messaging System Design
Design a globally distributed, real-time messaging platform similar to Facebook Messenger. The system must support persistent connections for low-latency delivery, multimodal content storage, and multi-device synchronization. Address how you would handle message ordering, delivery guarantees (Sent/Delivered/Read statuses), and efficient storage for billions of messages while maintaining high availability and security.
WebSockets
Cassandra
Redis
Kafka
S3
February 23, 2026