File Sharing Service Like Dropbox Or Google Drive — How To Tackle System Design Interview

Dropbox is a cloud file storage service. It enables users to share the files across their devices and also with remote storage servers. It does that by allowing the users to create special folders on each of their computers or mobile devices, which the service then synchronizes so that it appears to be the same folder regardless of which computer is used to view it. Files placed in this folder also are typically accessible through a website and mobile apps and can be easily shared with other users for viewing or collaboration.

Functional Requirements:

The Dropbox service has the following functional requirements.

1. Users need an account to use the Dropbox service. There are two types of users.

· Free Users — have limited capabilities, a limited number of devices supported, limited network bandwidth and storage

· Premium Users — have more capabilities, a greater number of devices supported, more network bandwidth and storage as compared to free users

2. A User can create a root folder (also called a home folder) in his cloud storage and map it to his devices. Any update (file or folder create/update/delete) that happened in one device under that root…