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. --- The Core Mechanics Every URL shortener does three things: Store: Given a long URL, generate a short code and store the mapping Redirect: Given a short code, look up the long URL and redirect the user Track: Record metadata about each visit (optional but valuable) --- 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,…
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