Full Stack • Java • System Design • Cloud • AI Engineering

System Design2026-06-06

Notification Service System Design

Design a multi-channel notification service for email, SMS, push and in-app messages.

What is a Notification Service?

A notification service delivers alerts to users across channels such as email, SMS, push notification and in-app inbox.

Requirements

  • Send notifications
  • Support multiple channels
  • Retry failed delivery
  • Track delivery status
  • Store user preferences

Architecture

Producer Service → Notification API → Message Queue → Channel Workers
                                      ↓
                              Notification DB

Reliability

Use retry with exponential backoff, dead-letter queue, idempotency key and delivery status tracking.