How URL Shorteners Work: Redirects, Hashing, and Analytics
URL shorteners map a short code to a long URL and redirect via 301/302. Learn how the redirect chain works, what data is collected, and how to build one.
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Tags: url, developer-tools, web
How URL Shorteners Work: Redirects, Hashing, and Analytics A URL shortener takes and produces . When someone visits the short URL, they end up at the original. Simple enough to explain in a sentence, but interesting to build — involving hash generation, database design, redirect semantics, and click analytics. Short Code Generation: Base62 Encoding The short code (like ) needs to be compact, URL-safe, and unique. The standard approach is base62 encoding of an auto-incrementing integer. Base62 alphabet: — 62 characters, all URL-safe, no encoding needed. Capacity at each code length: | Length | Max codes | Example code | |--------|-----------|-------------| | 1 | 62 | | | 2 | 3,844 | | | 3 | 238,328 | | | 4 | 14,776,336 | | | 5 | 916,132,832 | | | 6 | 56,800,235,584 | | A 6-character base62…
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