System design patterns
Sharding, load balancing, CAP tradeoffs, and scaling patterns — interview and production ready.
How to Mock a Metrics Decorator in Python with unittest.mock
This code demonstrates a timing decorator that wraps a function to measure execution time and prints the duration, with a unit test using unittest.mock to patch the print function and assert it was called.
import time
from functools import wraps
from unittest.mock import patch
def add_metrics(func):
@wraps(func)
def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
start = time.perf_counter()
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
elapsed = time.perf_counter() - start
print(f"{func.__name__} took {elapsed:.6f}s…
Observer Pattern with Mock Metrics in Python
Implement the Observer pattern with a mock metrics collector to track state changes and verify notifications.
import unittest
from unittest.mock import Mock
class Subject:
def __init__(self):
self._state = 0
self._observers = []
def attach(self, observer):
self._observers.append(observer)
def set_state(self, value):
if value != self._state:
self._state = value
…
Route Messages to Handlers with a Python Dict
This code demonstrates a simple message routing pattern using a dictionary to map topic keys to handler functions, with a default handler for unmatched topics.
def route_message(message, routing_table):
"""Route a message to the correct handler based on the topic key."""
topic = message.get("topic", "default")
handler = routing_table.get(topic, routing_table.get("default"))
return handler(message)
def handle_orders(message):
return f"Orders handler proc…
Browse by section
Each section groups closely related Python snippets.
System design patterns — Python code examples
What you will find here
This page collects system design patterns snippets — short, copy-ready Python you can paste into our free online IDE and run without installing anything. Each sample includes a plain-English explanation and the full source code.
Samples vs tutorials and challenges
Samples are quick reference — one concept per page. For step-by-step teaching, use our Python tutorials. To test yourself, try quizzes or coding challenges. Clean up style with the Python formatter.