System Design

A complete learning path from first principles to production-grade distributed systems.

What You'll Master

This guide covers everything from scaling a simple web server to millions of users, all the way to designing the infrastructure behind the world's largest tech companies.

The Learning Path

Work through the parts sequentially — each builds on concepts from the previous.

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Part 1 — Fundamentals

The non-negotiable foundations. Scalability, trade-offs, and estimation — the bedrock every engineer must know.

#	Chapter	Difficulty	~Time
01	Introduction to System Design	Beginner	20 min
02	Scalability	Beginner	30 min
03	Core Trade-offs	Intermediate	45 min
04	Back-of-Envelope Estimation	Beginner	25 min

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Part 2 — Building Blocks

The atomic components of every distributed system. DNS, databases, caching, queues, and protocols.

#	Chapter	Difficulty	~Time
05	DNS	Beginner	20 min
06	Load Balancing	Intermediate	30 min
07	Caching	Intermediate	35 min
08	Content Delivery Networks	Beginner	25 min
09	Databases: SQL	Intermediate	40 min
10	Databases: NoSQL	Intermediate	35 min
11	Message Queues	Intermediate	30 min
12	Communication Protocols	Intermediate	35 min

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Part 3 — Architecture & Patterns

Production architecture patterns — microservices, events, replication, security, and observability.

#	Chapter	Difficulty	~Time
13	Microservices	Intermediate	35 min
14	Event-Driven Architecture	Intermediate	35 min
15	Data Replication & Consistency	Advanced	45 min
16	Security & Reliability	Intermediate	40 min
17	Monitoring & Observability	Intermediate	30 min

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Part 4 — Case Studies

Full deep-dives into real-world system designs — from URL shorteners to ride-sharing platforms.

#	Chapter	Difficulty	~Time
18	URL Shortener & Pastebin	Intermediate	35 min
19	Social Media Feed	Advanced	40 min
20	Chat & Messaging System	Advanced	40 min
21	Video Streaming Platform	Advanced	45 min
22	Ride-Sharing & Geospatial	Advanced	40 min

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Part 5 — Modern Mastery

Cloud-native, ML systems, and a comprehensive interview framework to tie it all together.

#	Chapter	Difficulty	~Time
23	Cloud-Native & Serverless	Advanced	40 min
24	ML Systems & AI Infrastructure	Advanced	45 min
25	Interview Framework & Cheat Sheets	Beginner	30 min

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How to Use This Guide

1. Read sequentially — concepts compound on each other
2. Draw diagrams — don't just read, sketch the architecture
3. Attempt estimates — pause at capacity estimation sections and calculate yourself
4. Practice the questions — each chapter has interview-style exercises with difficulty levels and hints
5. Revisit — come back after completing later chapters for new perspective

Total estimated time: ~14 hours across 25 chapters

$ grep -r "TODO" ./system-design/ | wc -l
# 0 — all 25 chapters await you