Feeds and media case studies
These cases are about long lists that the user scrolls: posts, images and video. You design how the app loads one page at a time and how it keeps old data fresh. You also design how it shows pictures and video without using too much memory or mobile data. The hard parts are paging, caches and loading ahead. The news feed is the best place to start. The image loading case and the video case build on it.
Main case studies in this topic
- Design a news feedPaging, optimistic writes (show a change first), and keeping the cache fresh.
- Topic
- Feeds and media Also: Offline and sync
- Starts at
- Mid-level
- Reading time
- 15 min read
Build guide: 10 min - Builds on
- Design a chat app
- Status
- Free
- Design an image loading libraryMemory and disk caches, decoding, and cancelling requests.
- Topic
- Feeds and media Also: SDKs and libraries
- Starts at
- Mid-level
- Reading time
- 15 min read
Build guide: 20 min - Builds on
- Design a news feed
- Status
- Free
- Design a video streaming appLoading ahead (prefetch), adaptive bitrate, and playback state.
- Topic
- Feeds and media Also: Live data and payments
- Starts at
- Senior (also in the staff track)
- Reading time
- 15 min read
Build guide: 21 min - Builds on
- Design an image loading library
- Status
- Free
This topic also appears in
The main topic of these case studies is a different one. Each one still teaches part of this topic.
- Design a pagination libraryThe library API, generic types, and which requests go first.
- Topic
- SDKs and libraries Also: Feeds and media
- Starts at
- Mid-level
- Reading time
- 15 min read
Build guide: 20 min - Builds on
- Design a news feed
- Status
- Free
- Design photo backup and file syncUploads that can resume, sync by blocks, and edit conflicts.
- Topic
- Offline and sync Also: Feeds and media
- Starts at
- Mid-level (also in the staff track)
- Reading time
- 14 min read
Build guide: 18 min - Builds on
- Design a chat app
- Status
- Free
Where these cases sit on the learning map
The blue boxes are in this topic. The boxes above them are the pages to read first. See the whole map.
- Case study
- Free teaser
- Guide
- In this topic
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