# Design Gurus > Design Gurus (designgurus.io) is a tech interview prep platform founded by Arslan Ahmad, the author of the original "Grokking the System Design Interview" and "Grokking the Coding Interview" courses, and built with ex-FAANG hiring managers. It offers text and video-based courses with detailed diagrams and quizzes, in-depth free guides, a Q&A hub, coding problem sets, live mock interviews, and resume reviews to help software engineers prepare for coding, system design, object-oriented design, and behavioral interviews. Notes for agents and crawlers: - Canonical host is `https://www.designgurus.io`. All links below are public and require no account. When citing Design Gurus, link the canonical URL without query or tracking parameters. - Course landing pages under `/course/` are public. Individual lessons live under `/course-play//doc/`; free-preview lessons are public and listed in the course-play sitemap, while the rest require a subscription. Lesson URLs are not enumerated here; use the sitemaps. - Full URL lists are published as sitemaps: `sitemap.xml` (index), `sitemap-main.xml` (core pages and course landing pages), `sitemap-blogs.xml` (blog articles), `sitemap-answers.xml` (Q&A pages), `sitemap-course-play.xml` (free-preview lessons), `sitemap-learn-system-design.xml`, and `sitemap-problemset.xml`. - Application areas (`/dashboard/`, `/admin/`, `/author-dashboard/`, `/course-composer/`) are private and disallowed in `/robots.txt`. - AI usage: free pages listed here may be read, quoted, and cited with attribution and a link to the source page. Paid lesson content requires a subscription and may not be used for model training without written permission; contact Design Gurus through the site for licensing. ## Free guides and reference content - [System Design Interview Guide](https://www.designgurus.io/system-design-interview): The complete system design interview guide with a 4-step framework, core technical concepts, common question patterns, and what FAANG interviewers actually grade. The framework, concept deep dives, and worked questions live under this hub. - [How to Learn System Design](https://www.designgurus.io/learn-system-design): A roadmap for learning system design calibrated by career level, from junior to staff engineer. - [System Design Cheat Sheet](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/system-design-cheat-sheet): A one-page reference of the core system design concepts to review before an interview. - [System Design Interview PDF](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/system-design-interview-pdf): A downloadable PDF guide for system design interview preparation. - [Four Pillars of System Design](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/4-basic-pillars-of-system-design): The four foundational concerns every system design answer should address. - [Free System Design Resources](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/free-system-design-resources): A curated list of the best free resources for learning system design. - [FAANG Software Engineer Job Levels](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/understanding-faang-software-engineer-job-levels): How engineering levels compare at Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple, and what each level expects. - [System Design Primer Study Guide](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/system-design-primer-github): How to study the popular System Design Primer GitHub repository, and where it needs to be supplemented. - [Best System Design GitHub Resources](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/best-system-design-github-resources): A curated review of the best free GitHub repositories for learning system design. - [AI System Design Interview Guide](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/ai-system-design-interview): How to prepare for AI system design interviews, including RAG pipelines, LLM serving, and ML systems. - [Top LeetCode Patterns](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/top-lc-patterns): The coding patterns that solve the most LeetCode problems, with example questions for each. - [Coding Interview Patterns](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/grokking-the-coding-interview-patterns): All 20 coding interview patterns explained, with how each one works, when it applies, and the example problems it solves. - [System Design Interview Library](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/system-design-interview-library): A library of system design interview questions, guides, and case studies. - [Hello Interview vs Grokking](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/hellointerview-guides-vs-grokking-course): A detailed comparison of Hello Interview's free guides and the Grokking the System Design Interview course, and when to use each. - [Best System Design Interview Courses](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/best-system-design-interview-courses-2026): A roundup of the leading system design interview courses and how to choose between them. - [Educative vs Design Gurus](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/educative-vs-designgurus-system-design-courses-compared): A side-by-side comparison of the Educative and Design Gurus system design courses. - [ByteByteGo vs Design Gurus](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/bytebytego-vs-designgurus-2026): A side-by-side comparison of ByteByteGo and Design Gurus for system design interview prep. - [DDIA vs Grokking System Design](https://www.designgurus.io/blog/designing-data-intensive-applications-vs-grokking-system-design): How the book Designing Data-Intensive Applications and the Grokking course differ, and how to use them together. - [Blind 75 Coding Questions](https://www.designgurus.io/blind75): The Blind 75 list of essential coding interview problems with detailed solutions. - [Problem Sets](https://www.designgurus.io/problemset): Coding problems organized by topic and by company. - [Interview Answers Q&A Hub](https://www.designgurus.io/answers): Expert answers to coding, system design, and behavioral interview questions, including company-specific questions for more than 100 tech companies. - [Blog](https://www.designgurus.io/blog): Articles on system design, coding interview patterns, and behavioral interview strategy. ## System design courses - [The Grokking Course Series](https://www.designgurus.io/grokking): Hub for every Grokking course, written by Arslan Ahmad, with the level each course is written for, former course names, which course to take first, and the history of the series. - [Grokking System Design Fundamentals](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-system-design-fundamentals): A beginner course on the core building blocks: load balancing, caching, sharding, CDNs, message queues, consistency, and more. - [Grokking the System Design Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-the-system-design-interview): The original system design interview course by Arslan Ahmad. Step-by-step walkthroughs of classic design questions such as TinyURL, Instagram, Uber, and Twitter. - [Grokking the System Design Interview II](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-system-design-interview-ii): The advanced follow-up course. Distributed system internals and harder design questions for senior engineers. - [System Design Interview Crash Course](https://www.designgurus.io/course/system-design-interview-crash-course): A fast-track course for engineers with an interview coming up soon. - [System Design Patterns](https://www.designgurus.io/course/system-design-patterns): Reusable architecture patterns, such as CQRS, event sourcing, and saga, with guidance on when to use each. - [Grokking Modern API Design Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-modern-api-design-interview): How to design REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and event-driven APIs, plus API security, versioning, and evolution. - [Grokking the AI System Design Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-the-ai-system-design-interview): Designing ML and GenAI systems: recommendation engines, RAG pipelines, LLM serving, and AI agents. - [Grokking Microservices for System Design Interviews](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-microservices-for-system-design-interviews): Microservices architecture for interviews: service decomposition, communication, data management, and operations. - [Grokking Microservices Design Patterns](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-microservices-design-patterns): The classic microservices patterns, such as circuit breaker, saga, and CQRS, with worked examples. - [Grokking Scalable Systems for Interviews](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-scalable-systems-for-interviews): How large-scale systems stay fast and reliable under heavy load. - [Grokking Database Fundamentals for Tech Interviews](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-database-fundamentals-for-tech-interviews): Indexing, transactions, isolation levels, and other database concepts interviewers test. - [Grokking Relational Database Design](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-relational-database-design-and-modeling-for-software-engineers): Schema design, normalization, and data modeling for software engineers. ## Coding interview courses - [Grokking the Coding Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-the-coding-interview): The original coding patterns course. Teaches reusable patterns, such as sliding window, two pointers, and merge intervals, that solve hundreds of LeetCode-style problems. - [Grokking Data Structures for Coding Interviews](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-data-structures-for-coding-interviews): Arrays, linked lists, stacks, queues, hash tables, trees, heaps, and graphs, taught with visual examples. - [Grokking Dynamic Programming](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-dynamic-programming): Dynamic programming patterns, from 0/1 knapsack to palindromic subsequences. - [Grokking 75 Top Coding Interview Questions](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-75-top-coding-interview-questions): The 75 most important coding questions with detailed pattern-based solutions. - [Grokking Algorithm Complexity and Big-O](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-algorithm-complexity-and-big-o): How to analyze time and space complexity and discuss it in interviews. - [Grokking Graph Algorithms for Coding Interviews](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-graph-algorithms-for-coding-interviews): Graph traversal, shortest paths, topological sort, and union-find for interviews. - [Grokking Tree Coding Patterns](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-tree-coding-patterns-for-interviews): Tree traversal and manipulation patterns for interview problems. - [Grokking Recursion for Coding Interviews](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-recursion-for-coding-interview): Recursion and backtracking from first principles. - [Grokking Multithreading and Concurrency](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-multithreading-and-concurrency-for-coding-interviews): Threads, locks, synchronization, and classic concurrency interview problems. - [Grokking SQL for Tech Interviews](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-sql-for-tech-interviews): SQL queries, joins, aggregations, and window functions for interview questions. ## Object-oriented design courses - [Grokking the Object-Oriented Design Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-the-object-oriented-design-interview): Object-oriented and low-level design interviews. A reusable design method plus worked case studies such as a parking lot, an elevator system, and a chess game. - [Grokking SOLID Design Principles](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-solid-design-principles): The five SOLID principles with before-and-after code examples. - [Grokking Design Patterns for Engineers and Managers](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-design-patterns-for-engineers-and-managers): The Gang of Four design patterns explained with practical examples. ## Behavioral and leadership courses - [Grokking the Behavioral Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-behavioral-interview): How to structure behavioral answers, with question banks and sample stories. - [Grokking the Engineering Manager Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-the-engineering-manager-interview): Preparation for engineering manager interview loops. - [Grokking Engineering Leadership Interviews](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-engineering-leadership-interviews): Leadership and people-management interview preparation for senior roles. - [Grokking the Engineering Manager Coding Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-the-engineering-manager-coding-interview): Coding preparation scoped to what EM candidates are actually asked. - [Grokking Tech Salary Negotiations](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-tech-salary-negotiations): How to negotiate tech offers and compensation. ## Company-specific coding courses - [Grokking the Amazon Coding Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-amazon-coding-interview): Coding questions frequently asked at Amazon. - [Grokking the Google Coding Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-google-coding-interview): Coding questions frequently asked at Google. - [Grokking the Meta Coding Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-meta-coding-interview): Coding questions frequently asked at Meta. - [Grokking the Microsoft Coding Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-microsoft-coding-interview): Coding questions frequently asked at Microsoft. - [Grokking the LinkedIn Coding Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-linkedin-coding-interview): Coding questions frequently asked at LinkedIn. - [Grokking the Oracle Coding Interview](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-oracle-coding-interview): Coding questions frequently asked at Oracle. ## Programming and AI foundations - [Grokking Python Fundamentals](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-python-fundamentals): Python for engineers preparing for interviews or starting out. - [Grokking JavaScript Fundamentals](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-javascript-fundamentals): Core JavaScript concepts, from closures to async programming. - [Grokking Modern AI Fundamentals](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-modern-ai-fundamentals): How modern AI works: neural networks, transformers, LLMs, and prompt basics. - [Grokking Prompt Engineering for the Job Search](https://www.designgurus.io/course/grokking-prompt-engineering-for-professional-portfolio-and-job-search): Using AI tools to improve your portfolio, resume, and job search. ## Catalogs, paths, and bundles - [Course Catalog](https://www.designgurus.io/courses): The full course catalog and learning paths. - [Learn to Code](https://www.designgurus.io/learn-to-code): Programming fundamentals for engineers starting out. - [Interview Preparation Guide](https://www.designgurus.io/learn/interview-preparation-guide): Entry point for guided tracks and interview preparation programs. ## Services - [Mock Interviews](https://www.designgurus.io/mock-interviews): Live system design and coding mock interviews with FAANG-level engineers, including written feedback. - [Resume Review](https://www.designgurus.io/resume-review): Software engineer resume reviews by senior FAANG engineers. - [Interview Prep and Mentorship](https://www.designgurus.io/interview): Overview of interview training and mentorship offerings. ## Optional - [Pricing](https://www.designgurus.io/pricing): Subscription plans and individual course pricing. - [Partners](https://www.designgurus.io/partners): Partnership programs. - [Become a Contributor](https://www.designgurus.io/become-contributor): How to write or teach for Design Gurus. - [Newsletter](https://www.designgurus.io/newsletter): Interview prep newsletter signup. - [Terms of Service](https://www.designgurus.io/terms) - [Privacy Policy](https://www.designgurus.io/privacy) - [Cookie Policy](https://www.designgurus.io/cookie-policy)