The Question
Design
Scalable Real-time Messaging & Presence System
Design a highly available 1:1 chat system capable of supporting millions of concurrent users. The system must handle real-time message delivery, provide accurate user online/offline status indicators, and allow users to retrieve their message history efficiently. Focus on managing long-lived connections and optimizing presence update propagation.
WebSockets
Redis
Kafka
Cassandra
Microservices
February 20, 2026