Reference library

System design patterns

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

11 matches
System design patterns medium

Build a BFF (Backend for Frontend) Mock Aggregator in Python

A minimal HTTP server implementing the BFF pattern that aggregates user data and orders from two mock backends into a single JSON response.

bff http-server aggregation
Python
import json
from http.server import BaseHTTPRequestHandler, HTTPServer
from urllib.parse import urlparse


class MockBackendA:
    def get_user(self, user_id):
        return {"id": user_id, "name": "Alice", "service": "backend-a"}


class MockBackendB:
    def get_orders(self, user_id):
        return [
            {…
18 0 Open
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 Build a Pipe and Filter Text Processing Chain in Python

A functional pipe-and-filter chain that transforms text through uppercase, whitespace normalization, number removal, stopword filtering, and file export.

pipeline text-processing functional
Python
import re
import sys


def pipe_filter_chain(stream):
    def uppercase(text):
        return text.upper()

    def strip_whitespace(text):
        return " ".join(text.split())

    def remove_numbers(text):
        return re.sub(r"\d+", "", text)

    def remove_stopwords(text, stopwords={"the", "and", "of", "in"}):…
16 0 Open
System design patterns medium

How to Build a Sidecar Logging Proxy in Python

Wrap any object with a proxy that transparently logs every method call, arguments, return value, and execution time to a file — mimicking a sidecar pattern.

proxy logging sidecar
Python
import logging
import time
from datetime import datetime


class LoggingProxy:
    """Sidecar-style proxy that logs all calls to a wrapped object."""

    def __init__(self, target, log_file="proxy.log"):
        self._target = target
        logging.basicConfig(
            filename=log_file,
            level=loggin…
15 0 Open
System design patterns medium

How to Build an Adapter to Translate External API Responses in Python

Build an adapter class that translates a mock external API's response shape into your internal representation, keeping callers decoupled from the external contract.

adapter-pattern api architecture
Python
import json
from typing import Dict, Any


class ExternalAPI:
    """Mock external service returning a different data shape."""
    def get_user(self, user_id: int) -> Dict[str, Any]:
        return {
            "id": user_id,
            "full_name": "Jane Doe",
            "email_address": "jane@example.com",
     …
14 0 Open
System design patterns medium

How to Build an Anti-Corruption Layer in Python

Wrap a legacy system with a translation layer that converts awkward legacy data into a clean, modern DTO (Data Transfer Object) for use by new code.

anti-corruption-layer ddd dto
Python
class LegacyOrderSystem:
    """Legacy system with awkward, unstructured data."""
    def get_order(self):
        return {
            "order_id": "ORD-123",
            "cust": "Acme Corp",
            "items": [{"sku": "A1", "qty": 2, "price_each": 10.0}],
            "ship_to": "123 Main St, Springfield"
        }…
15 0 Open
System design patterns medium

How to Build an Immutable Money Value Object in Python

Implement an immutable Money class with rounded decimal amounts, currency, safe equality, and hashing for use as a value object.

value-object immutability money
Python
class Money:
    def __init__(self, amount: float, currency: str):
        object.__setattr__(self, "_amount", round(amount, 2))
        object.__setattr__(self, "_currency", currency)

    def __setattr__(self, name, value):
        raise AttributeError(f"Money is immutable: cannot set '{name}'")

    def __delattr__…
13 0 Open
System design patterns medium

How to Implement the Abstract Factory Pattern in Python

Implements the Abstract Factory pattern to create families of related GUI objects (buttons, checkboxes) without specifying their concrete classes.

abstract-factory design-patterns system-design
Python
from abc import ABC, abstractmethod


class Button(ABC):
    @abstractmethod
    def render(self):
        pass


class Checkbox(ABC):
    @abstractmethod
    def render(self):
        pass


class WindowsButton(Button):
    def render(self):
        return "Rendering Windows-style button"


class WindowsCheckbox(Chec…
13 0 Open
System design patterns medium

How to Implement the Strategy Pattern in Python

This Python code demonstrates the Strategy design pattern using interchangeable sorting algorithms (bubble sort and quick sort) that can be swapped at runtime.

design-pattern strategy oop
Python
class SortingStrategy:
    def sort(self, data):
        raise NotImplementedError

class BubbleSort(SortingStrategy):
    def sort(self, data):
        result = data.copy()
        n = len(result)
        for i in range(n):
            for j in range(0, n - i - 1):
                if result[j] > result[j + 1]:
      …
13 0 Open
System design patterns medium

Implement a Consistent Hash Ring in Python

Build a minimal consistent hash ring with virtual nodes to map keys to servers stably as nodes are added or removed.

consistent-hashing hashing distributed-systems
Python
import hashlib
import bisect


class ConsistentHashRing:
    def __init__(self, nodes=None, replicas=3):
        self.replicas = replicas
        self.ring = {}
        self.sorted_keys = []
        if nodes:
            for node in nodes:
                self.add_node(node)

    def _hash(self, key):
        return i…
15 0 Open
System design patterns medium

Object Pool Pattern for Database Connections in Python

Implements a reusable connection pool with acquire/release and context manager support, mocking database connections with idle reuse and exhaustion handling.

object-pool connection-pool databases
Python
import time
from contextlib import contextmanager
from collections import deque


class ConnectionPool:
    def __init__(self, size=3, max_idle=5):
        self._idle = deque(maxlen=max_idle)
        self._active = set()
        self.size = size

    def _create(self):
        return {"created_at": time.time(), "queri…
12 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.