What does an HLD document contain?
Major components, how they communicate, external systems (database, cache, email provider, queue), the tech stack, and data flow from input to output.
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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.
Field-level schema details, exact API endpoints, internal algorithms, and edge cases. Those belong to LLD.
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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