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Grokking the System Design Interview

Name: Grokking the System Design Interview | Video Course by Design Gurus
Price: 154 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.7 (53723 reviews)

Grokking the System Design Interview is the industry’s most trusted System Design Interview course, featuring video lectures, over 30,000 five-star reviews, and more than 140,000 learners.

Level:

Beginner

Study Time:

20h

Lessons:

Videos

Updated

Last month

4.7

(53,723 ratings)

160,788 learners

Course Overview

This is the original Grokking System Design course (formerly on Educative), now exclusively on DesignGurus.io. System Design Interviews test how you think about scalability, reliability, and trade-offs under pressure. Grokking the System Design Interview distills the core concepts that FAANG-level engineers use every day, from load balancing and caching to data partitioning and microservices architecture. You’ll learn how to approach open-ended design questions methodically, evaluate alternatives intelligently, and communicate like a senior architect — even if you’re still mid-career. With real-world case studies, interactive diagrams, video lessons, and structured frameworks, this course gives you the confidence to design any large-scale system from scratch. The curriculum of this course is continually updated to reflect the latest industry trends and best practices, ensuring you stay ahead of the curve. Whether you’re interviewing at a FAANG company or any tech-driven organization, this course gives you the inside track to building the systems of tomorrow and landing the role you deserve.

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Annual Subscription

Get instant access to all current and upcoming courses for one year.

Lifetime Access - This Course

Get lifetime access to this course only.

Discounted Prices for Your Region

Certification on completing the course.

Gift for lifetime

What you'll learn

A proven approach to systematically tackle any system design question — from requirements gathering to final detailed solution.
Master the core concepts of scalability, reliability, and performance to build robust, web-scale systems.
Dive into caching strategies, load balancing methods, and database sharding to handle complex, large-scale scenarios.
Get insider tips from ex-Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft interviewers on what top tech companies expect in system design interviews.

Master the art of requirements engineering — from clarifying requirements to understanding constraints — for large-scale systems.
Learn system design with real-world patterns: microservices, event-driven architectures, data partitioning, and more.
Explore hands-on examples like designing Instagram, Uber-like services, and messaging platforms to gain practical experience.
Understand how to choose the right technology stack, communication protocol (REST vs. gRPC), and hosting strategy (cloud vs. on-prem).

Course Content

• Chapters • 66 Lessons

1. Introduction to System Design Interview

4 lessons

What is a System Design Interview?Understand the purpose of system design interviews, focusing on scalability, architecture decisions, trade-offs, and real-world problem-solving skills.

Functional vs. Non-functional RequirementsMaster functional vs. non-functional requirements in system design, emphasizing scalability, performance, and trade-offs for building robust, real-world systems.

What are Back-of-the-Envelope Estimations?Master back-of-the-envelope estimation to assess scalability, performance, and trade-offs using quick calculations in system design interviews.

Things to Avoid During System Design InterviewLearn what to avoid in system design interviews—like skipping trade-offs, ignoring requirements, poor communication, and rigid thinking.

2. Glossary of System Design Basics

20 lessons

System Design BasicsGet familiar with core system design concepts, key architectural components, and building blocks of scalable, distributed software systems.

Key Characteristics of Distributed SystemsExplore key characteristics of distributed systems, including scalability, reliability, availability, efficiency, fault tolerance, and manageability.

Load BalancingLearn how load balancing improves scalability and availability by distributing traffic using smart algorithms, health checks, and redundancy techniques.

Load Balancing Algorithms

CachingLearn caching strategies to improve system performance, including cache types, eviction policies, read/write methods, and cache invalidation techniques.

Data PartitioningLearn data partitioning techniques—horizontal, vertical, hybrid—and partitioning criteria to scale databases, improve performance, and balance workloads.

IndexesUnderstand how database indexes optimize query performance, enable efficient lookups, and impact write operations in large-scale systems.

ProxiesLearn how forward and reverse proxies improve security, caching, and traffic control by mediating communication between clients and servers.

Redundancy and ReplicationLearn how redundancy and replication improve system reliability and availability through failover strategies and synchronous, asynchronous, and semi-synchronous replication.

SQL vs. NoSQLCompare relational and non-relational databases to understand schema flexibility, scalability, ACID compliance, and ideal use cases for each.

CAP TheoremUnderstand why distributed systems must trade off between consistency, availability, and partition tolerance—only two of the three can be guaranteed at any time.

PACELC TheoremLearn how PACELC extends CAP by showing that even without partitions, distributed systems must balance latency and consistency in replicated environments.

Consistent HashingLearn the architecture of scalable systems using consistent hashing for efficient data partitioning, replication, and dynamic node management.

Long-Polling vs WebSockets vs Server-Sent EventsUnderstand the system design of real-time communication protocols for scalable push-based updates between client and server.

Bloom FiltersExplore space-efficient system design using Bloom filters for fast, probabilistic membership checks with minimal memory and no false negatives.

QuorumDesign highly available distributed systems using quorum-based consistency models to coordinate read/write operations across replicated nodes.

Leader and FollowerUnderstand the architecture of leader-based replication in distributed systems for consistent writes, fault tolerance, and coordinated data synchronization.

HeartbeatLearn how distributed systems use heartbeat signals to detect server failures and maintain reliable request routing and availability.

ChecksumExplore how distributed systems ensure data integrity by using checksums to detect and prevent data corruption during transmission.

QuizTest your understanding of system design basic concepts.

3. System Design Trade-offs

New

22 lessons

Importance of Discussing Trade-offsDemonstrating trade-offs shows maturity, critical thinking, and real-world design skills crucial for scalable, practical system architecture.

Strong vs Eventual ConsistencyExplore consistency models in distributed systems, comparing strong and eventual consistency in terms of latency, availability, accuracy, and scalability trade-offs.

Latency vs ThroughputUnderstand the difference between latency and throughput, and explore strategies to optimize response time and data processing capacity in systems.

ACID vs BASE Properties in DatabasesUnderstand key differences between ACID and BASE database models, balancing consistency, availability, scalability, and fault tolerance in distributed systems.

Read-Through vs Write-Through CacheExplore read-through vs write-through caching strategies for improving read performance, data consistency, and integrity in scalable systems.

Batch Processing vs Stream ProcessingCompare batch vs stream processing in system design—complexity, resource efficiency, continuous vs scheduled data flow, and real-time responsiveness.

Load Balancer vs. API GatewayUnderstand differences between Load Balancer and API Gateway in scalable architectures—traffic distribution, request routing, API management, and availability.

API Gateway vs Direct Service ExposureExplore API Gateway vs Direct Service Exposure in distributed systems—compare centralized routing and security with direct access and reduced latency.

Proxy vs. Reverse ProxyUnderstand how proxies and reverse proxies manage client and server traffic in distributed system design to improve security, caching, and scalability.

API Gateway vs. Reverse ProxyLearn the difference between API Gateways and Reverse Proxies in distributed systems, focusing on routing, security, load balancing, and orchestration.

SQL vs. NoSQLCompare SQL vs NoSQL databases based on schema structure, scalability, ACID compliance, flexibility, and best use cases in system design.

Primary-Replica vs Peer-to-Peer ReplicationUnderstand Primary-Replica vs Peer-to-Peer replication models, including data flow, consistency, scalability, fault tolerance, and use cases.

Data Compression vs Data DeduplicationLearn the differences between data compression and deduplication for optimizing storage—focus, scope, efficiency, and best-use scenarios.

Server-Side Caching vs Client-Side CachingUnderstand server-side vs client-side caching—how they differ in location, control, performance impact, and best use across web apps.

REST vs RPCLearn the architectural differences between REST and RPC, including stateless resource handling vs. procedure calls, flexibility, scalability, and performance trade-offs.

Polling vs. Long-Polling vs. WebSockets vs. WebhooksCompare real-time delivery strategies—Polling, Long-Polling, WebSockets, and Webhooks—for scalable, event-driven system communication.

CDN Usage vs Direct Server ServingLearn when to use a Content Delivery Network vs direct server hosting based on traffic scale, geographic distribution, and caching efficiency.

Serverless Architecture vs Traditional Server-basedLearn serverless system design benefits like dynamic scaling and reduced ops versus traditional server hosting with full control and overhead.

Stateful vs Stateless ArchitectureExplore the architecture of stateful vs stateless systems, comparing session handling, scalability, and design trade-offs for APIs and web services.

Hybrid Cloud Storage vs All-Cloud StorageExplore hybrid cloud vs all-cloud storage architectures, balancing scalability, compliance, and control for secure, flexible enterprise data strategies.

Token Bucket vs Leaky BucketLearn how Token Bucket and Leaky Bucket algorithms manage network traffic shaping, rate limiting, and handling of bursty data.

Read Heavy vs Write Heavy SystemExplore how system design varies for read-heavy and write-heavy workloads with techniques like batching, replication, and data partitioning.

4. System Design Problems

18 lessons

System Design Interviews - A step by step guide

System Design Master Template

Designing a URL Shortening Service like TinyURL

Designing Pastebin

Designing Instagram

Designing Dropbox

Designing Facebook Messenger

Designing Twitter

Designing Youtube or Netflix

Designing Typeahead Suggestion

Designing an API Rate Limiter

Designing Twitter Search

Designing a Web Crawler

Designing Facebook’s Newsfeed

Designing Yelp or Nearby Friends

Designing Uber backend

Designing Ticketmaster

Additional Resources

5. Appendix

2 lessons

Other courses

What people say about our courses

Arijeet

Software Engineer

Just completed the “Grokking the system design interview”. It's amazing and super informative. Have come across very few courses that are as good as this!

Steven Zhang

Software Engineer

Just wanted to say thanks for your Grokking the system design interview resource (https://lnkd.in/g4Wii9r7) - it helped me immensely when I was interviewing from Tableau (very little system design exp) and helped me land 18 FAANG+ jobs!

Eric

Software Engineer

I've completed my first pass of "grokking the System Design Interview" and I can say this was an excellent use of money and time. I've grown as a developer and now know the secrets of how to build these really giant internet systems.

Vivien Ruska

Software Engineer

Hey, I wasn't looking for interview materials but in general I wanted to learn about system design, and I bumped into 'Grokking the System Design Interview' on designgurus.io - it also walks you through popular apps like Instagram, Twitter, etc.👌

Brandon Lyons

Software Engineer

The famous "grokking the system design interview course" on http://designgurus.io is amazing. I used this for my MSFT interviews and I was told I nailed it.

Nathan Thomas

Software Engineer

My newest course recommendation for all of you is to check out Grokking the System Design Interview on designgurus.io. I'm working through it this month, and I'd highly recommend it.

About the Author

Meet Arslan Ahmad

The Expert Behind Grokking the System Design Interview

Design Gurus Founder

Ex-FAANG Manager

Industry Expertise & Leadership

Arslan Ahmad is the lead author of Grokking the System Design Interview. As the founder of Design Gurus and a former FAANG hiring manager, he has worked at industry giants like Facebook (now Meta) and Microsoft.

He has conducted hundreds of system design interviews, giving him unique insight into what top tech companies look for in candidates.

The course also incorporates expertise from senior engineers at Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Uber, ensuring you learn system design best practices from professionals who have built and scaled real-world systems.

500+

Interviews Conducted

10k+

Students Taught

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FAQs

What is Grokking the System Design Interview and who is it for?

Grokking the System Design Interview is an online course designed to help software engineers master system design interviews. It’s the original, best-selling system design prep resource (formerly on Educative) that has guided over 140,000 learners. The course is crafted for anyone preparing for system design interviews – from junior developers with no design experience to seasoned engineers who want to refine their skills. If you’re aiming for roles at FAANG or any tech company, Grokking the System Design Interview provides a structured, easy-to-follow curriculum that ensures you’re ready to design scalable systems and impress in your interview.

Who created Grokking the System Design Interview, and what are their credentials?

Grokking the System Design Interview was created by the team at Design Gurus, led by experienced engineers who have worked as hiring managers at top tech companies (Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.). The course’s founder, Arslan Ahmad, is an ex-FAANG engineer who has been on both sides of the interview table.Is Grokking the System Design Interview suitable for beginners, or do I need prior system design experience?No prior experience is required – the course is designed to be beginner-friendly. Grokking the System Design Interview is structured to introduce and explain the basics of system design clearly, making it suitable even for those who are new to the subject.

What sets Grokking the System Design Interview apart from other system design resources?

Grokking the System Design Interview stands out because it pioneered a clear, structured approach to system design prep. Unlike piecemeal blogs or videos, this course offers a cohesive curriculum crafted by actual FAANG interviewers. Complex concepts are explained in simple language with intuitive diagrams and videos, so you truly understand them.

How long does it take to complete Grokking the System Design Interview?

Grokking the System Design Interview offers roughly 20 hours of rich content, broken into about 65 bite-sized lessons. It’s completely self-paced – you can spread the learning over a few weeks or accelerate through it, depending on your schedule. Many users dedicate an hour or two per day and finish in under a month, but you’re free to go at your own pace. The course platform tracks your progress, allowing you to revisit lessons at any time. The goal is a thorough understanding, not just speed, so you can take the time you need to absorb each concept.

Does Grokking the System Design Interview provide a certificate of completion?

Yes. Upon finishing all modules of the course, you will receive a certificate of completion from Design Gurus.

Will this course help me get a FAANG interview?

Yes — our students routinely clear Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft interviews because they learn how to explain design decisions clearly and defend trade-offs.

Is this course updated for 2025 interview trends?

Absolutely. It covers modern topics such as streaming systems, GeoDNS, event-driven architecture, and global load balancing — all frequently appearing in 2025 interviews.