Identifier Design Patterns: UUIDs, Snowflakes, and Custom IDs
Design unique identifiers for distributed systems. Compare UUID, Twitter Snowflake, Instagram ID, and custom encodings for your use case.
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Tags: developer-tools, uuid, distributed-systems
Identifier Design Patterns: UUIDs, Snowflakes, and Custom IDs Choosing an ID scheme is an architectural decision you will live with for years. The wrong choice shows up as database performance regressions, cross-service coordination bottlenecks, or security vulnerabilities. This guide surveys the major ID strategies — what they are, how they work, and when each is the right tool. |---|---| | Uniqueness | No two IDs collide | Everyone | | Sortability | IDs sort by creation time | Databases, pagination | | Statelessness | No central generator required | Distributed systems | | Compactness | Short representation | URLs, storage | | Opacity | Reveals nothing about the data | Public APIs, security | | Reversibility | Can extract metadata (timestamp, etc.) | Debugging, operations | |…
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