Real-Time Distributed Chat System

Problem and Approach

A distributed chat system built with Go, React, and Redis pub/sub to study horizontal scaling of WebSocket connections, including a custom load balancer and containerized deployment.

Technical Learnings

• WebSocket protocol mechanics for low-latency bidirectional communication
• Failure modes and scaling tradeoffs in distributed message systems
• Load balancing strategies for connection-heavy workloads
• Redis pub/sub behavior for multi-instance message propagation
• Containerized deployment patterns with Docker-based environments
• Operational considerations when moving from single-node to distributed design