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Every tweet ever posted—over 500 billion and counting—must be stored, indexed, and retrievable in milliseconds. This is not a typical database problem. The scale, access patterns, and reliability requirements demand specialized solutions.
The Storage Challenge:
This page explores how to design storage that meets these requirements, examining data models, sharding strategies, and the multi-tier storage architecture that powers Twitter's tweet infrastructure.
By the end of this page, you'll understand tweet data modeling, ID generation strategies (Snowflake), sharding approaches for scalable storage, indexing for efficient queries, and multi-tier storage architectures that balance performance with cost.
Before choosing storage technologies, we must define exactly what a tweet contains. The data model impacts storage size, query patterns, and indexing strategies.
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// Protocol Buffer schema for Tweet entitysyntax = "proto3"; message Tweet { // === Identity === int64 id = 1; // Snowflake ID (see ID generation section) int64 author_id = 2; // User who created this tweet // === Content === string text = 3; // Tweet text (1-280 chars, 1-4000 premium) repeated int64 media_ids = 4; // References to media attachments int64 quoted_tweet_id = 5; // If this is a quote tweet int64 reply_to_tweet_id = 6; // If this is a reply int64 reply_to_user_id = 7; // Author of tweet being replied to int64 conversation_id = 8; // Root tweet of the conversation thread // === Entities (parsed from text) === repeated Mention mentions = 9; // @username references repeated Hashtag hashtags = 10; // #topic references repeated Url urls = 11; // Embedded URLs // === Metadata === int64 created_at_ms = 12; // Unix timestamp in milliseconds string source = 13; // e.g., "Twitter for iPhone" string language = 14; // Detected language (ISO 639-1) GeoLocation geo = 15; // Optional geolocation // === Visibility === bool is_protected = 16; // From protected account ReplyRestriction reply_restriction = 17; bool is_deleted = 18; // Soft delete flag // === Engagement Counters === // Note: Often stored separately for better update performance TweetMetrics metrics = 19;} message TweetMetrics { int64 like_count = 1; int64 retweet_count = 2; int64 reply_count = 3; int64 quote_count = 4; int64 view_count = 5; int64 bookmark_count = 6;} message Mention { int64 user_id = 1; string username = 2; int32 start_index = 3; int32 end_index = 4;} message Hashtag { string tag = 1; int32 start_index = 2; int32 end_index = 3;} message Url { string url = 1; // Original URL in tweet string expanded_url = 2; // Full URL after expansion string display_url = 3; // Shortened for display int32 start_index = 4; int32 end_index = 5;} enum ReplyRestriction { EVERYONE = 0; FOLLOWING = 1; // Only people author follows MENTIONED = 2; // Only mentioned users}Understanding storage size per tweet guides capacity planning:
| Field | Typical Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ID fields (id, author_id, etc.) | 64 bytes | 8 × 8-byte integers |
| Text content | 560 bytes | 280 chars × 2 (UTF-16 avg) |
| Entities (mentions, hashtags, urls) | 200 bytes | Variable, avg estimate |
| Metadata (timestamps, source, lang) | 50 bytes | Fixed overhead |
| Counters (if embedded) | 48 bytes | 6 × 8-byte integers |
| Protobuf overhead | 50 bytes | Field tags, length prefixes |
| Total per tweet | ~1 KB | Conservative estimate |
Storage Capacity Planning========================= Daily tweet volume: 500 million tweetsAverage tweet size: 1 KB Daily storage growth: 500M × 1 KB = 500 GB/day Annual storage growth: 500 GB × 365 = ~180 TB/year (tweet data only) With 3x replication for durability: 180 TB × 3 = 540 TB/year 10-year retention: 540 TB × 10 = 5.4 PB Plus indexes (estimate 30% of base): 5.4 PB × 1.3 = ~7 PB total This excludes:- Media storage (images, videos) - stored separately- Timeline caches - Redis tier- Search indexes - Elasticsearch tierEngagement counters (likes, retweets) are often stored separately from core tweet data. Counters change frequently; tweet content never changes after creation. Separating them allows different update patterns and caching strategies.
Every tweet needs a unique identifier. At Twitter's scale, simple auto-increment IDs don't work—they require centralized coordination that becomes a bottleneck. Twitter invented Snowflake to solve this problem.
A Snowflake ID is a 64-bit integer composed of three parts:
Snowflake ID (64 bits total)============================ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│ Sign │ Timestamp (41 bits) │ DC │ Worker │ Seq ││ (1) │ Milliseconds since epoch │(5) │ (5) │ (12) │└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Bit allocation:- 1 bit: Sign (always 0 for positive IDs)- 41 bits: Timestamp (milliseconds since custom epoch, e.g., 2010-11-04)- 5 bits: Datacenter ID (0-31 datacenters)- 5 bits: Worker/Machine ID (0-31 workers per datacenter)- 12 bits: Sequence number (0-4095 per millisecond per worker) Capacity:- Timestamp: 2^41 ms ≈ 69 years from epoch- Per worker: 4096 IDs per millisecond- Total: 32 datacenters × 32 workers × 4096 IDs/ms = 4.2 million IDs/ms Example ID: 1628851200000000000Binary: 0|10110100111001011110100011000000000|00001|00011|000000000001 └─┬─┘└──────────────────────────────────┬─┘└──┬──┘└──┬──┘└─────┬─────┘ │ │ │ │ │ Sign Timestamp DC Worker Seq123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113
"""Snowflake ID Generator Generates globally unique, roughly time-sorted 64-bit IDs withoutrequiring coordination between generators. Each machine runs itsown generator independently. Key properties:1. Unique: Datacenter + Worker + Sequence guarantees uniqueness2. Time-sorted: IDs are roughly ordered by creation time3. Fast: No network calls, no locks (per-worker)4. Compact: Fits in a 64-bit integer (8 bytes)""" import timeimport threading class SnowflakeGenerator: # Custom epoch: November 4, 2010 (Twitter's choice) EPOCH = 1288834974657 # milliseconds # Bit allocations DATACENTER_BITS = 5 WORKER_BITS = 5 SEQUENCE_BITS = 12 # Maximum values MAX_DATACENTER_ID = (1 << DATACENTER_BITS) - 1 # 31 MAX_WORKER_ID = (1 << WORKER_BITS) - 1 # 31 MAX_SEQUENCE = (1 << SEQUENCE_BITS) - 1 # 4095 # Bit shift amounts WORKER_SHIFT = SEQUENCE_BITS # 12 DATACENTER_SHIFT = SEQUENCE_BITS + WORKER_BITS # 17 TIMESTAMP_SHIFT = DATACENTER_SHIFT + DATACENTER_BITS # 22 def __init__(self, datacenter_id: int, worker_id: int): if datacenter_id < 0 or datacenter_id > self.MAX_DATACENTER_ID: raise ValueError(f"Datacenter ID must be 0-{self.MAX_DATACENTER_ID}") if worker_id < 0 or worker_id > self.MAX_WORKER_ID: raise ValueError(f"Worker ID must be 0-{self.MAX_WORKER_ID}") self.datacenter_id = datacenter_id self.worker_id = worker_id self.sequence = 0 self.last_timestamp = -1 self.lock = threading.Lock() def generate(self) -> int: """Generate a new Snowflake ID.""" with self.lock: timestamp = self._current_millis() if timestamp < self.last_timestamp: # Clock moved backwards - this is a critical error raise ClockMovedBackwardsError( f"Clock moved backwards by " f"{self.last_timestamp - timestamp}ms" ) if timestamp == self.last_timestamp: # Same millisecond - increment sequence self.sequence = (self.sequence + 1) & self.MAX_SEQUENCE if self.sequence == 0: # Sequence exhausted - wait for next millisecond timestamp = self._wait_next_millis(timestamp) else: # New millisecond - reset sequence self.sequence = 0 self.last_timestamp = timestamp # Compose the ID snowflake_id = ( ((timestamp - self.EPOCH) << self.TIMESTAMP_SHIFT) | (self.datacenter_id << self.DATACENTER_SHIFT) | (self.worker_id << self.WORKER_SHIFT) | self.sequence ) return snowflake_id def _current_millis(self) -> int: return int(time.time() * 1000) def _wait_next_millis(self, last_ts: int) -> int: """Busy-wait until next millisecond.""" ts = self._current_millis() while ts <= last_ts: ts = self._current_millis() return ts @staticmethod def parse(snowflake_id: int) -> dict: """Extract components from a Snowflake ID.""" timestamp = (snowflake_id >> SnowflakeGenerator.TIMESTAMP_SHIFT) timestamp += SnowflakeGenerator.EPOCH datacenter = (snowflake_id >> SnowflakeGenerator.DATACENTER_SHIFT) datacenter &= SnowflakeGenerator.MAX_DATACENTER_ID worker = (snowflake_id >> SnowflakeGenerator.WORKER_SHIFT) worker &= SnowflakeGenerator.MAX_WORKER_ID sequence = snowflake_id & SnowflakeGenerator.MAX_SEQUENCE return { "timestamp_ms": timestamp, "datacenter_id": datacenter, "worker_id": worker, "sequence": sequence }Snowflake IDs are roughly time-sorted, meaning recent tweets have larger IDs. This property is crucial for efficient range queries: 'Get tweets from user X after ID Y' becomes a simple range scan on sorted storage. No need to query and filter by timestamp separately.
No single database can store hundreds of billions of tweets. We must shard the data across many machines. The sharding strategy fundamentally impacts query patterns and system complexity.
Twitter uses a hybrid approach that optimizes for the most common queries:
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"""Hybrid Sharding Strategy Primary storage: Sharded by user_id- User's tweets stored together- Efficient user timeline queries Secondary index: Global tweet_id lookup- Maps tweet_id -> (shard, user_id)- Enables efficient single-tweet retrieval This provides best of both worlds:- User timeline: O(1) shard lookup- Single tweet: O(1) index lookup + O(1) shard lookup""" class TweetShardRouter: def __init__(self, num_shards: int = 1024): self.num_shards = num_shards self.tweet_index = TweetIdIndex() # Distributed cache def get_shard_for_user(self, user_id: int) -> int: """ Determine which shard stores a user's tweets. Uses consistent hashing for stable shard assignment. """ return self._consistent_hash(user_id) % self.num_shards def route_tweet_write(self, tweet: Tweet) -> int: """ Route a new tweet to its storage shard. Also updates the tweet_id index. """ shard = self.get_shard_for_user(tweet.author_id) # Write tweet to user's shard self._write_to_shard(shard, tweet) # Update tweet_id index self.tweet_index.set( tweet.id, {"shard": shard, "user_id": tweet.author_id} ) return shard def route_tweet_read(self, tweet_id: int) -> Optional[Tweet]: """ Retrieve a tweet by ID. Uses index to find the correct shard. """ # Look up shard from index index_entry = self.tweet_index.get(tweet_id) if not index_entry: return None shard = index_entry["shard"] return self._read_from_shard(shard, tweet_id) def route_user_timeline( self, user_id: int, limit: int = 50 ) -> List[Tweet]: """ Get a user's tweets. Single-shard operation - very efficient. """ shard = self.get_shard_for_user(user_id) return self._read_user_tweets(shard, user_id, limit) def _consistent_hash(self, key: int) -> int: """ Consistent hashing for stable shard assignment. Minimizes resharding when cluster size changes. """ # Using jump consistent hash for simplicity b, j = -1, 0 while j < self.num_shards: b = j key = ((key * 2862933555777941757) + 1) & 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF j = int((b + 1) * (1 << 31) / ((key >> 33) + 1)) return bEven with user-based sharding, some shards become hot due to popular users:
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"""Hot Shard Detection and Mitigation Automatically detects and handles hot shards to preventperformance degradation and ensure fair resource distribution.""" class HotShardManager: def __init__( self, metrics_client, replica_manager, threshold_qps: int = 10000 ): self.metrics = metrics_client self.replicas = replica_manager self.threshold = threshold_qps self.hot_shards: Set[int] = set() async def monitor_and_scale(self): """ Continuously monitor shard traffic and scale as needed. """ while True: shard_qps = await self.metrics.get_shard_qps() for shard_id, qps in shard_qps.items(): if qps > self.threshold and shard_id not in self.hot_shards: # Shard became hot - add replicas await self._scale_up_shard(shard_id) self.hot_shards.add(shard_id) elif qps < self.threshold * 0.5 and shard_id in self.hot_shards: # Shard cooled down - remove extra replicas await self._scale_down_shard(shard_id) self.hot_shards.remove(shard_id) await asyncio.sleep(60) # Check every minute async def _scale_up_shard(self, shard_id: int): """Add read replicas to hot shard.""" current_replicas = await self.replicas.get_replica_count(shard_id) target_replicas = min(current_replicas * 2, 10) # Cap at 10 await self.replicas.set_replica_count(shard_id, target_replicas) logging.info( f"Scaled up shard {shard_id}: {current_replicas} -> {target_replicas}" )Changing the number of shards requires moving massive amounts of data. Use consistent hashing to minimize data movement, plan resharding during low-traffic periods, and always maintain enough capacity headroom to avoid emergency resharding.
Efficient retrieval requires carefully designed indexes. Different query patterns require different index structures.
| Index | Structure | Query Pattern | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| tweet_by_id | Hash index | GET tweet by ID | Primary key lookup |
| tweets_by_user | B-tree (user_id, created_at DESC) | User timeline | Range scan for pagination |
| tweets_by_conversation | B-tree (conversation_id, created_at) | Thread view | Replies to a tweet |
| tweets_by_reply_to | B-tree (reply_to_tweet_id) | Reply count | Count replies |
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-- Core tweet table (per shard)CREATE TABLE tweets ( id BIGINT PRIMARY KEY, -- Snowflake ID author_id BIGINT NOT NULL, text TEXT NOT NULL, created_at TIMESTAMP NOT NULL, conversation_id BIGINT, reply_to_tweet_id BIGINT, reply_to_user_id BIGINT, is_deleted BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE, -- ... other fields); -- Primary lookup by ID (automatic with PRIMARY KEY)-- Already optimal: hash-based access -- User timeline: All tweets by a user, newest firstCREATE INDEX idx_user_timeline ON tweets (author_id, created_at DESC)WHERE is_deleted = FALSE; -- Conversation view: All tweets in a threadCREATE INDEX idx_conversation ON tweets (conversation_id, created_at ASC)WHERE conversation_id IS NOT NULL AND is_deleted = FALSE; -- Reply lookup: Find replies to a specific tweetCREATE INDEX idx_replies ON tweets (reply_to_tweet_id, created_at ASC)WHERE reply_to_tweet_id IS NOT NULLAND is_deleted = FALSE; -- Efficient queries:-- User timelineSELECT * FROM tweets WHERE author_id = :user_id AND is_deleted = FALSEORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 50; -- Thread viewSELECT * FROM tweets WHERE conversation_id = :root_tweet_id AND is_deleted = FALSEORDER BY created_at ASC; -- Cursor-based pagination (more efficient than OFFSET)SELECT * FROM tweets WHERE author_id = :user_id AND created_at < :cursor_timestamp AND is_deleted = FALSEORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 50;Some queries span multiple shards and require global indexes:
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"""Global Secondary Indexes Indexes that span all shards, enabling queries that wouldotherwise require scatter-gather across all shards. Stored separately from tweet data, often in a distributedkey-value store like Redis or a specialized index service.""" class GlobalTweetIndex: """ Global index mapping tweet_id to its location. Essential for single-tweet lookups in user-sharded system. """ def __init__(self, redis_cluster): self.redis = redis_cluster self.TTL = 86400 * 7 # 7 days (tweets rarely move) async def set_location(self, tweet_id: int, shard_id: int, user_id: int): """Record where a tweet is stored.""" key = f"tweet_loc:{tweet_id}" value = f"{shard_id}:{user_id}" await self.redis.set(key, value, ex=self.TTL) async def get_location(self, tweet_id: int) -> Optional[Tuple[int, int]]: """Look up tweet location.""" key = f"tweet_loc:{tweet_id}" value = await self.redis.get(key) if value: shard_id, user_id = value.split(":") return int(shard_id), int(user_id) return None async def batch_get_locations( self, tweet_ids: List[int] ) -> Dict[int, Tuple[int, int]]: """Batch lookup for efficiency.""" keys = [f"tweet_loc:{tid}" for tid in tweet_ids] values = await self.redis.mget(keys) result = {} for tid, value in zip(tweet_ids, values): if value: shard_id, user_id = value.split(":") result[tid] = (int(shard_id), int(user_id)) return result class MentionIndex: """ Index for finding tweets that mention a specific user. Enables @mention notifications and mention timelines. """ async def add_mention( self, mentioned_user_id: int, tweet_id: int, timestamp: float ): """Record a mention for a user.""" key = f"mentions:{mentioned_user_id}" await self.redis.zadd(key, {str(tweet_id): timestamp}) # Trim to last 1000 mentions await self.redis.zremrangebyrank(key, 0, -1001) async def get_mentions( self, user_id: int, limit: int = 50 ) -> List[int]: """Get recent tweets mentioning a user.""" key = f"mentions:{user_id}" tweet_ids = await self.redis.zrevrange(key, 0, limit - 1) return [int(tid) for tid in tweet_ids]Every index adds write overhead. Adding a tweet with 3 mentions requires 4 writes: 1 to tweet storage + 3 to mention index. Balance query performance against write amplification. Only create indexes for queries that are frequent and performance-critical.
Not all tweets are accessed equally. Today's viral tweet might get millions of reads; a 5-year-old tweet might get one read per month. A multi-tier storage architecture optimizes for this access pattern.
| Tier | Age Range | Storage Type | Latency | Cost/GB | Access Pattern |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot | 0-7 days | Redis + RAM-MySQL | <5ms | $$$ | Very frequent |
| Warm | 7-90 days | SSD-MySQL | <20ms | $$ | Occasional |
| Cold | 90+ days | HDFS/S3 | <200ms | $ | Rare |
| Archive | 1+ years | Glacier/Tape | Hours | ¢ | Compliance only |
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"""Tiered Storage Router Routes read and write requests to the appropriate storage tierbased on tweet age and access patterns.""" from datetime import datetime, timedeltafrom enum import Enum class StorageTier(Enum): HOT = "hot" # < 7 days WARM = "warm" # 7-90 days COLD = "cold" # > 90 days class TieredStorageRouter: HOT_THRESHOLD = timedelta(days=7) WARM_THRESHOLD = timedelta(days=90) def __init__( self, hot_storage, # Redis + RAM-optimized MySQL warm_storage, # SSD MySQL cold_storage # HDFS/S3 ): self.hot = hot_storage self.warm = warm_storage self.cold = cold_storage def determine_tier(self, created_at: datetime) -> StorageTier: """Determine storage tier based on tweet age.""" age = datetime.utcnow() - created_at if age < self.HOT_THRESHOLD: return StorageTier.HOT elif age < self.WARM_THRESHOLD: return StorageTier.WARM else: return StorageTier.COLD async def write_tweet(self, tweet: Tweet): """ Write new tweet to hot storage. Background job will age-out to cooler tiers. """ # All writes go to hot storage await self.hot.write(tweet) async def read_tweet(self, tweet_id: int) -> Optional[Tweet]: """ Read tweet, checking tiers in order. Promotes to hot tier if accessed from cold storage. """ # Check hot first (most common case) tweet = await self.hot.read(tweet_id) if tweet: return tweet # Check warm tweet = await self.warm.read(tweet_id) if tweet: # Promote to hot if frequently accessed await self._maybe_promote(tweet, StorageTier.WARM) return tweet # Check cold tweet = await self.cold.read(tweet_id) if tweet: # Promote to warm (never directly to hot) await self._maybe_promote(tweet, StorageTier.COLD) return tweet return None async def read_user_timeline( self, user_id: int, limit: int = 50 ) -> List[Tweet]: """ Read user's timeline, spanning tiers if necessary. Most timelines fit entirely in hot tier. """ tweets = [] # Start from hot tier hot_tweets = await self.hot.read_user_tweets(user_id, limit) tweets.extend(hot_tweets) if len(tweets) < limit: # Need more from warm tier remaining = limit - len(tweets) warm_tweets = await self.warm.read_user_tweets( user_id, remaining ) tweets.extend(warm_tweets) if len(tweets) < limit: # Need more from cold tier (unusual) remaining = limit - len(tweets) cold_tweets = await self.cold.read_user_tweets( user_id, remaining ) tweets.extend(cold_tweets) return tweets async def _maybe_promote(self, tweet: Tweet, from_tier: StorageTier): """ Promote tweet to hotter tier if access pattern warrants. Uses access counter to avoid promoting one-time accesses. """ access_count = await self._increment_access_count(tweet.id) if from_tier == StorageTier.COLD and access_count >= 5: # Accessed 5+ times - promote to warm await self.warm.write(tweet) elif from_tier == StorageTier.WARM and access_count >= 20: # Accessed 20+ times - promote to hot (going viral) await self.hot.write(tweet)12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152535455565758596061626364656667686970717273747576777879808182
"""Age-Out Background Job Moves tweets from hot to warm to cold storage based on age.Runs continuously, processing in small batches to minimizeimpact on production traffic.""" class AgeOutJob: def __init__( self, tiered_storage: TieredStorageRouter, batch_size: int = 1000, sleep_between_batches: float = 0.1 ): self.storage = tiered_storage self.batch_size = batch_size self.sleep_ms = sleep_between_batches async def run_hot_to_warm_migration(self): """ Continuously migrate tweets from hot to warm storage. """ while True: threshold = datetime.utcnow() - timedelta(days=7) # Find tweets older than 7 days in hot storage old_tweets = await self.storage.hot.scan_older_than( threshold, limit=self.batch_size ) if not old_tweets: # Nothing to migrate - sleep longer await asyncio.sleep(60) continue # Batch write to warm storage await self.storage.warm.batch_write(old_tweets) # Delete from hot storage tweet_ids = [t.id for t in old_tweets] await self.storage.hot.batch_delete(tweet_ids) self.metrics.increment( "age_out.hot_to_warm", len(old_tweets) ) # Rate limit to avoid impacting production await asyncio.sleep(self.sleep_ms) async def run_warm_to_cold_migration(self): """ Migrate tweets from warm to cold storage. Similar pattern, different thresholds. """ while True: threshold = datetime.utcnow() - timedelta(days=90) old_tweets = await self.storage.warm.scan_older_than( threshold, limit=self.batch_size ) if not old_tweets: await asyncio.sleep(300) # Check less frequently continue # Cold storage (HDFS/S3) uses different write pattern await self.storage.cold.batch_write(old_tweets) await self.storage.warm.batch_delete( [t.id for t in old_tweets] ) self.metrics.increment( "age_out.warm_to_cold", len(old_tweets) ) await asyncio.sleep(self.sleep_ms)Multi-tier storage reduces costs significantly—cold storage is 10-100x cheaper than hot storage. But it adds complexity: migration jobs, cross-tier queries, and promotion logic. For smaller systems, a single tier might be simpler and sufficient.
You've now mastered the core concepts of tweet storage at scale. Let's consolidate:
What's Next:
With storage fundamentals covered, the next page explores Trending Topics—how to detect and surface what's happening in real-time across millions of tweets per hour. We'll cover streaming data pipelines, approximate counting algorithms, personalization, and anti-gaming measures.
You now understand how to store and retrieve hundreds of billions of tweets with sub-10ms latency. This knowledge applies beyond Twitter—to any system storing massive volumes of user-generated content with similar access patterns.