How long should HLD take?
For small projects, a few hours. For bigger ones, a few days. The work is thinking and sketching, not writing long documents.
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More FAQs in What Is High-Level Design (HLD)? With Example
The big-picture view of a system. It shows the major components, how they talk, external systems, the tech stack, and data flow. Anyone should understand it in 30 seconds.
Major components, how they communicate, external systems (database, cache, email provider, queue), the tech stack, and data flow from input to output.
Field-level schema details, exact API endpoints, internal algorithms, and edge cases. Those belong to LLD.
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