Scaling a learning platform for exam season
A rebuilt backend, admin platform and web app that keep video lessons and live classes running when hundreds of thousands of students log in at once.
The client
uLesson — edtech, Abuja, Nigeria.
The challenge
Demand for uLesson's video lessons and live classes spikes sharply before national exams. The original backend could not scale for those peaks, the content team managed lessons through spreadsheets and developers spent exam season fire-fighting instead of building.
What we did
We re-architected the backend for scale and gave the content and support teams proper tools, while the existing mobile apps kept working throughout.
- Modular API backend with caching, background workers and a search service
- Video delivery through a CDN with adaptive streaming
- Live-class infrastructure with real-time chat and presence
- Content management and support dashboards with roles and audit logs
- Kubernetes platform with autoscaling, staging environment and load testing before every exam season
- Product analytics and SLO-based monitoring
Results
The platform now handles ten times the previous peak, lessons start 45 percent faster and availability during the last exam season was 99.95 percent. The content team publishes without engineering help.
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