[System Design Tech Case Study Pulse #81] Billions of Queries Daily : How Google Search Actually Works

Behind the tech with detailed explanation and flow chart....

May 01, 2025

∙ Paid

Hi All,

Google File System (GFS) plays a crucial role in managing over 100 petabytes of data for their Google Search infrastructure, enabling them to process billions of queries daily. This feat allows Google to provide fast, relevant search results across the vast expanse of the internet.

Let me dive deep into how Google engineered this system, exploring the key architectural decisions, scaling strategies, and optimizations that enable GFS to manage this enormous volume of data for Google Search.

System Overview

Before I delve into Google's GFS architecture for Search, let's look at some key metrics that highlight the scale of its operations:

- Data managed: 100+ petabytes
- Daily search queries: Billions
- Indexed web pages: Trillions
- Data centers: Dozens, globally distributed
- Latency target: < 200 milliseconds for search results
- Availability: 99.999%+
- Supported platforms: Web, Mobile, Voice
- GFS clusters: Thousands
- Chunk servers per cluster: 1000+
- Chunk size: 64 MB
- Replication factor: Typically 3