System design of an URL Shortener (TinyURL or Bit.ly)

You might have seen URL shortener services such as TinyURL or Bit.ly which are used for using a short alias instead of long URLs. Even wondered why and how these kinds of applications work? In this article, we'll be discussing the system design of a URL shortener and compare it with some applications currently in use.

Before reading this article, it is suggested if you could go and try out tinyurl.com so that you could understand this article better.

What is the need of using this?

Why do we nee...