System Design Basics - Reverse Proxy vs Forward Proxy

Let's find out the difference between Forward Proxy and Reverse Proxy for System Design interview

Hello guys , in last few article, I was answering popular System design questions like API Gateway vs Load Balancer and how Rate Limiter work?, and today, we are going to take a look at another interesting System design question, Reverse Proxy vs Forward Proxy.

These questions are different than system design problems like how to design WhatsApp and YouTube but they are equally important and if you have knowledge of them you can mention in most of the system design problems.

Now coming back to the topic, In network architecture world, proxies play a pivotal role in managing and securing communication between clients and servers.

There are two common types of proxies, forward and reverse proxies, they serve distinct purposes and operate at different layers of the networking stack.

Forward proxies are used to shield clients from external networks while Reverse proxy acts as a frontend Facade for backend Servers, much like API Gatewawy and load balancers.

Let's go deep into the intricacies of forward and reverse proxies to know their differences and understand their respective roles in system design.