
![Feature Image](/images/facebook-clone/feature.png)

## Improvements
- use a SQL database to better handle relationships or use a Graph database to better handle friendships between users

The current architecture of the application is unlikely to scale go the magnitude of 10 million or more users like Reddit. 

The first optimization I would suggest is to horizontally scale the "application" servers (not counting database) by using a load balancer. This is to reduce the load on each individual server. 

The second optimization is to create read replicas of the database because there's going to be significantly more reads than writes. Perhaps, the server can be load balanced similarly (i.e. separating the read API and the write API). 

In terms of features, Reddit wouldn't be Reddit today without allowing users to upload media files. To make the application support media files (e.g. images, gifs, videos), we first have to modify the post schema to support image url. This would be a string-like object, and would link to the image file stored on Amazon S3. I chose to use Amazon S3 as it is quick and easy to set up, unlike self-hosting it. It is also the cheaper option and removes unnecessary overhead, so developers and the company can focus on making a brilliant product for their users and consumers.


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