Load Balancing: Distributing Traffic at Scale
February 20, 2026•Trịnh Minh Nhật
Understand load balancing algorithms and strategies for distributing traffic across multiple servers to achieve high availability.
System Design Fundamentals
Part 5 / 6- ↑ 1 more above
- 2Microservices Architecture: A Comprehensive Guide
- 3Database Design Patterns for Scalable Systems
- 4Caching Strategies for High-Performance Systems
- 5Load Balancing: Distributing Traffic at Scale
- 6Message Queues and Event-Driven Architecture
What is Load Balancing?
Load balancing distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers to ensure no single server bears too much demand.
Algorithms
- Round Robin: Requests are distributed sequentially across the pool
- Least Connections: Routes to the server with the fewest active connections
- IP Hash: Client IP determines which server receives the request
Layer 4 vs Layer 7
- L4 (Transport): Routes based on IP and TCP data
- L7 (Application): Routes based on content (URL, headers, cookies)