Reference library

System design patterns

Sharding, load balancing, CAP tradeoffs, and scaling patterns — interview and production ready.

4 matches
System design patterns medium

Circuit Breaker Pattern in Python: Closed, Open, and Half-Open States

Implement a circuit breaker with closed, open, and half-open states to prevent repeated calls to failing services and allow recovery after a timeout.

circuit-breaker resilience fault-tolerance
Python
class CircuitBreaker:
    def __init__(self, failure_threshold=3, timeout_seconds=5):
        self.failure_threshold = failure_threshold
        self.timeout_seconds = timeout_seconds
        self.state = "closed"
        self.failure_count = 0
        self.last_failure_time = None

    def record_success(self):
     …
14 0 Open
System design patterns medium

How to Limit Concurrent Requests with a Semaphore in Python

Use threading.Semaphore with a ThreadPoolExecutor to cap how many worker threads run simultaneously, preventing resource overload.

concurrency semaphore threading
Python
import threading
import time
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor

def worker(name, semaphore, results):
    with semaphore:
        results.append(f"start {name}")
        time.sleep(0.5)  # simulate async work
        results.append(f"done {name}")

def main():
    sem = threading.Semaphore(2)  # max 2 …
14 0 Open
System design patterns medium

Inbox pattern consumer dedupe mock in Python

Implements a mock inbox consumer that deduplicates incoming messages by ID, with automatic eviction of old seen IDs to prevent unbounded memory growth.

deduplication inbox-pattern dataclasses
Python
import json
from collections import deque
from dataclasses import dataclass, field
from hashlib import sha256
from typing import Any


@dataclass
class InboxConsumer:
    max_seen: int = 1000
    seen_ids: set = field(default_factory=set)
    seen_history: deque = field(default_factory=deque)

    def _mark_seen(self,…
13 0 Open
System design patterns medium

Outbox pattern reliable publish in Python with SQLite

Implements a transactional outbox with SQLite, ensuring reliable message publishing by storing events in the same DB transaction as business changes.

outbox sqlite transaction
Python
import sqlite3
from contextlib import contextmanager
from datetime import datetime, timezone


class Outbox:
    def __init__(self, db_path=":memory:"):
        self.conn = sqlite3.connect(db_path)
        self.conn.execute("""
            CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS outbox (
                id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTO…
11 0 Open

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.