Case Study: Video Streaming Platform

Overview

Build upload, transcode, storage, and playback paths with CDN origin strategy and API control planes.

Video platforms require two distinct systems: ingest/transcode and playback/delivery.

You will build 9 architecture steps that model production dependencies.

You will run 1 failure experiment to observe bottlenecks and recovery behavior.

Success target: Uploads complete asynchronously while playback stays low-latency through CDN edge delivery.

Learning Objectives

• Can explain end-to-end video ingest and playback architecture
• Can defend CDN/object-storage origin strategy
• Can discuss transcode queue sizing and operational risk

Prerequisites

• Topic Hub: upload pipeline
• Chapter 32: Case Study - Video Streaming
• Prior Lab: Case Study: Notification Platform
• Prior Lab: CDN & Edge: Global Content Delivery

Experiments

1. Throttle transcode queue throughput and observe processing backlog