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Design a distributed rate limiter for an API serving millions of requests per second.

Every API platform needs one. Interviewers reward the candidate who picks the right algorithm (token bucket vs sliding window) for the burst behavior, then solves the genuinely hard part: enforcing one shared limit across many servers without a per-request round trip to a central store.

Updated Aug 2026 · Grounded in real Applied AI Engineer interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.

Every API platform needs one. Interviewers reward the candidate who picks the right algorithm (token bucket vs sliding window) for the burst behavior, then solves the genuinely hard part: enforcing one shared limit across many servers without a per-request round trip to a central store.

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LEARN THE BACKGROUND

No lesson covers this question directly yet. These teach the surrounding topic from the beginning.

Applied AI Engineering·The interviewPremium14mDriving the design conversationA design round is a conversation you are expected to lead, not a question you answer. This lesson is the shape that works, the four moments that decide the outcome, and the two classic ways strong candidates lose one.Applied AI Engineering·The interviewPremium12mTurning this course into a study planA concrete four-week plan mapping the seven modules onto the question bank, plus what to do differently if your interview is next week rather than next month.
UP NEXT ON YOUR JOURNEY
Next in this trackDesign a load balancer that distributes traffic across a fleet of backend servers.Next in this trackDesign a URL shortener like TinyURL or bit.ly.Next in this trackDesign a metrics, logging, and monitoring service for thousands of servers.
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