Grokking Modern System Design Interview vs. the Original Course

Grokking Modern System Design Interview is a course sold by Educative. Grokking the System Design Interview is the original course, written by Arslan Ahmad and the Design Gurus team and sold on DesignGurus.io.

If you want to see the whole series before choosing, the Grokking course series page lists every Grokking course with its level and the order to take them in.

The two names differ by one word, so many people think they are one product. They are separate courses with different authors, different lessons, and different ways to pay.

This article shows how to tell the two apart and compares what each one teaches. It also explains the longer "for Engineers & Managers" name. Design Gurus publishes this page and sells the original course.

Why the two names look alike

An earlier text-only version of the original course was once available on Educative. Many older reviews, forum posts, and bookmarks still point to that version.

Today, Educative sells its own course called Grokking Modern System Design Interview. Its course page credits Fahim ul Haq, a co-founder of Educative. The original course lives on DesignGurus.io, where its authors keep updating it.

Educative's browser tab shows a third title: "Grokking System Design Interview: Patterns & Mock Interviews". The main heading on that page says "Grokking Modern System Design Interview". So one Educative course can appear in search results under two titles.

The word "Modern" is the quickest clue. A course title with "Modern" in it points to Educative's course. "Grokking the System Design Interview", without "Modern", is the name of the original course.

How to tell which course you are looking at

Check four things on the page in front of you.

A web address alone is not a reliable clue. When we checked, an older Educative address ending in "grokking-modern-system-design-interview-for-engineers-managers" sent visitors to a shorter address. That shorter address ends in "grokking-the-system-design-interview", which looks like the original course name.

What Grokking Modern System Design Interview is

Grokking Modern System Design Interview is Educative's text-based system design course. Its course page lists 209 lessons, 147 quizzes, 8 mock interviews, and about 26 hours of material. It also lists 13 or more real-world case studies.

The course teaches building blocks first. A building block is a common part of a large system. Examples are a load balancer, a cache, a message queue, a rate limiter, and a blob store, which is storage for large files.

After the building blocks, the course uses them to design full systems, starting with YouTube. A later module covers lessons from real system failures. Educative calls its step-by-step design method RESHADED.

Access comes through an Educative subscription. Educative's Unlimited FAQ explains how its plans and renewals work. Check the current price on Educative's own course page before you buy.

What Grokking the System Design Interview is

Grokking the System Design Interview is the original course by Design Gurus. It is built for one job: answering a system design interview question well.

The course has four chapters:

1. How to approach a system design interview. A step-by-step method, requirements, rough traffic and storage estimates, and a master template for any design.
2. System design trade-offs. Short lessons on common choices, like SQL vs. NoSQL, strong vs. eventual consistency, and push vs. pull.
3. System design problems. Fifteen full designs, including a URL shortener, Instagram, Dropbox, Facebook Messenger, YouTube, Uber, and Ticketmaster. Each design ends with a quiz.
4. Glossary of system design basics. Load balancing, caching, data partitioning, consistent hashing, replication, and more.

Each chapter prepares you for the next one. The method from the first chapter is used again in every design in the third chapter.

Lessons are written text with diagrams. Ten of the fifteen designs also have a video walkthrough. You pay once and keep access to the course.

The price is 59, reduced from a 148 list price. Refunds are not offered, but the free chapters let you read real lessons first. You can preview Grokking the System Design Interview and open those free lessons before you decide.

Grokking Modern System Design Interview for Engineers & Managers

"Grokking Modern System Design Interview for Engineers & Managers" is a longer name for the same Educative course. It appeared in an older Educative web address, and some reviews and listings still use it.

That older address now sends visitors to Educative's current course page. So the long name and the short name lead to one course, not two.

A separate ebook has a similar title. "Grokking System Design Interview for Engineers & Managers" is sold on Amazon, with Umer Shaukat named as the author.

That ebook is a book, not a course. It is not the Educative course, and it is not the Design Gurus course.

Side-by-side comparison

Lesson counts do not measure depth. A glossary entry, a quiz, and a full design are very different sizes. Open one real lesson from each course before you compare the totals.

How to read an older Grokking review

Reviews of "Grokking" written years ago often describe the old text-only version. Before you trust one, check these four things:

• The date. An older review may describe lessons and features that have since changed.
• The link. A review that links to educative.io reviewed Educative's course. A review that links to designgurus.io reviewed the original course.
• The exact name. Look for the word "Modern" in the course title.
• The lessons shown. Screenshots of real lessons tell you more than general praise or complaints.

An old complaint can still be useful. Check whether it is still true today. For example, a review that says "no videos" describes the old text-only version, not the current original course.

Does "Modern" mean the original is out of date?

No. "Modern" is a word in Educative's course name. It is not a statement about when either course was last updated.

The useful question is different. Does the course train the reasoning an interviewer tests? That means turning a vague question into requirements, choosing between two options that both cost you something, and changing a design after the interviewer adds a constraint.

The original course puts that reasoning in its first two chapters. Chapter 1 is the method: requirements, rough traffic and storage estimates, then a template you reuse on every design. Chapter 2 is 24 lessons on trade-offs, and each one is a choice you have to defend out loud, such as SQL vs. NoSQL, strong vs. eventual consistency, and latency vs. throughput. The fifteen designs in Chapter 3 apply both.

Its authors update it on DesignGurus.io, and the current edition adds video walkthroughs and interactive diagrams to the written lessons.

Judge both courses from the lessons rather than the titles. Open one lesson in each, then ask whether its trade-off discussion gives you words you could use in an interview.

Which course should you choose

Choose the original course if your goal is the system design interview itself. It fits engineers who want a fixed interview method, trade-off practice, and a one-time price.

Choose Educative's course if you already pay for an Educative subscription. It fits engineers who prefer to learn building blocks one at a time before full designs.

Start with the basics first if you cannot yet explain a cache, a database replica, or a message queue. Grokking System Design Fundamentals teaches those parts before any interview practice.

Add advanced material if you interview at a senior or staff level. Advanced System Design Interview, Volume II builds on the original course with harder designs.

Grokking the System Design Interview is the original course behind the Grokking system design name. Its authors keep it up to date.

How we checked these details

We read both public course pages on 28 September 2026. Names, authors, counts, and prices come from those pages. Counts and prices change, so check each page again before you buy.

This article compares two products. It makes no claims about trademarks or about any past purchase.

Frequently asked questions

Is Grokking Modern System Design Interview the same as Grokking the System Design Interview?

No. Grokking Modern System Design Interview is Educative's own course. Grokking the System Design Interview is the original course by Design Gurus, with different authors, lessons, and prices.

Which one is the official Grokking system design course?

Each seller offers its own official course. The original course is Grokking the System Design Interview on DesignGurus.io, written by its original authors. Educative's own course is Grokking Modern System Design Interview.

Is there a PDF of Grokking Modern System Design Interview?

That course belongs to Educative, so Educative is the right place to ask. Design Gurus has no official PDF of its own course either. This answer about Grokking PDFs explains what the shared PDF files are.

I bought a Grokking course on Educative. Can I use it on Design Gurus?

Not automatically. Access stays with the platform that took your payment. Check your receipt and your account on that platform, and contact that platform with any questions.

Does "Modern" mean the Educative course is newer?

No. "Modern" is part of Educative's course name, and it does not tell you which course was updated more recently. The authors of the original course update it on DesignGurus.io.

Is the original course still current for system design interviews?

Yes. Its authors keep updating it, and the current edition adds video walkthroughs and interactive diagrams. A chapter of 24 trade-off lessons covers the choices interviewers ask you to defend.

Related reading

• Educative vs. Design Gurus: Which System Design Course Should You Buy?

• Best System Design Interview Courses Compared

• Grokking System Design: A Complete Guide by Its Creator

• Which System Design Interview Course Should I Take?

• I compared every "Grokking System Design" resource: Branden Floris on how he told the original course apart from the other resources that share its name, on InterviewNoodle, a Design Gurus publication on Medium.