Design a matchmaking system for a chess platform. The input is User ID, and you need to find a pair of players with similar ratings. Load: 1 million registered users, 100 thousand DAU, 500-1500 concurrent game sessions at peak. What architecture would you suggest?
sobes.tech AI
Answer from AI
For a matchmaking system of a chess platform with a given load, the following architecture can be proposed:
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User and rating storage — use a fast and scalable NoSQL or in-memory storage (e.g., Redis) for quick access to ratings.
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Matchmaking queue — maintain a queue of players waiting for an opponent, grouped by rating with some tolerance (e.g., ±100 rating points).
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Matchmaking service — a separate microservice that:
- Accepts User ID and rating.
- Searches for a suitable opponent in the queue.
- If an opponent is found, creates a game session.
- If not, places the player in the waiting queue.
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Load balancing — use horizontal scaling of matchmaking services.
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Game sessions — a separate service for managing game sessions, which scales with the number of concurrent games.
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Caching and indexing — for quick search of opponents by rating.
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Monitoring and logging — to track performance and errors.
An example of simplified matchmaking logic in Go:
func findMatch(userID string, rating int) (opponentID string, err error) {
// Pseudocode:
// 1. Check the waiting queue within the rating range
// 2. If an opponent is found — remove them from the queue and return
// 3. Otherwise, add the current user to the queue
}
This approach will ensure a fast and scalable matchmaking system for the given load.