Design a URL shortening service like Bitly or TinyURL. Describe how you would design the API, the database schema, and how you'd handle scaling.

## What to Cover Discuss the API structure (POST for new URLs, GET for retrieving), how to generate short links, storage mechanisms, and scaling strategies through sharding. ## Strong Answer Framework Elaborate on redundancy, disaster recovery, and user analytics features you might add. ## Watch Out For Address potential issues with collision in hash generation and the need for user authentication if needed.