✏️ Explanatory Question

What are constraints in system design and why do they matter?

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Answer with Explanation

Constraints are the fixed limits the design must live inside. Unlike requirements, you cannot negotiate them away.

  • Technical - a single machine has finite CPU, RAM, disk and network bandwidth.
  • Business - budget, deadline, team size, existing tech stack.
  • Regulatory - GDPR, data residency, retention and audit rules.
  • Physical - the speed of light means cross-continent round trips cost roughly 100-200 ms.

Constraints force the interesting trade-offs: if memory were infinite you would never need a cache eviction policy.

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