Flipkart planned for 20x traffic and still fell over

transcript

Flipkart planned for 20 times the traffic. It still fell over. The next day, its founders wrote to customers. And said sorry.

6 October 2014. Big Billion Day. 1.5 million people shopped. Over 600 crore rupees of goods, in about 10 hours. Behind it, nearly 5,000 servers. Ready for 20 times the traffic growth.

A huge day, by Flipkart's own count. But also a mess. The site throws errors. At times, it's simply unavailable. Deals sell out within minutes. Some within seconds. Then some confirmed orders get cancelled.

The founders' email went through it. One heading at a time. Website: at times of the day, traffic was much higher than 20x. Stock: hundreds to a few lakh units. Nowhere near the actual demand. Orders: many bought one item at once. Some had sold out seconds earlier. Prices: some reverted to full rate, for a few hours.

But here's the twist. Servers were one heading. Out of four. Stock, orders and prices all had to hold up too.

Seven years of hard work, Sachin and Binny Bansal wrote. To earn your trust. Then: Yesterday, we failed that trust. And a promise. A much, much better job next time.

A flash sale crams huge demand into minutes. Plan for more than servers. And when it breaks? A plain, specific apology beats silence.

Full breakdown in the lecture.