Learning Paths
System Design Interview Roadmap
Decoding the Secrets of Successful System Design Interviews. This guide is a comprehensive resource that prepares budding software engineers for the challenges of system design interviews. It delves into the intricacies of designing robust, scalable, and efficient systems, mirroring real-world scenarios that are commonly encountered during technical interviews. With a balanced mix of theoretical knowledge and practical exercises, including case studies, this guide ensures a comprehensive understanding of system design principles.
Modules:
5
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Learning Objectives
Comprehensive Coverage: The guide provides an in-depth understanding of system design principles, covering all essential topics required for technical interviews.
Real-World Scenarios: The guide includes real-world case studies and scenarios to help you understand what to expect and how to handle various situations during an interview.
Expert Guidance: Learn from industry professionals who have been on both sides of the interview table and can provide valuable insights and tips.
Flexibility: Learn at your own pace with this online guide, which you can access anytime, anywhere.
Community Support: Join a community of like-minded learners, share your doubts, discuss ideas, and learn together.
Career Advancement: This guide could be a stepping stone towards landing your dream job in the tech industry.
Path Contents
• 59 Chapters • 411 Lessons
Grokking System Design Fundamentals
Learn system design essentials required for designing scalable and high-performance systems.
• 25 Chapters • 104 Lessons
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1.

System Design Fundamentals

1 lesson
Introduction to System Design
2.

Load Balancing

8 lessons
Introduction to Load Balancing
Load Balancing Algorithms
Uses of Load Balancing
Load Balancer Types
Stateless vs. Stateful Load Balancing
High Availability and Fault Tolerance
Scalability and Performance
Challenges of Load Balancers
3.

API Gateway

3 lessons
Introduction to API Gateway
Usage of API gateway
Advantages and disadvantages of using API gateway
4.

Key Characteristics of Distributed Systems

7 lessons
Scalability
Availability
Latency and Performance
Concurrency and Coordination
Monitoring and Observability
Resilience and Error Handling
Fault Tolerance vs. High Availability
5.

Network Essentials

4 lessons
HTTP vs. HTTPS
TCP vs. UDP
HTTP: 1.0 vs. 1.1 vs 2.0 vs. 3.0
URL vs. URI vs. URN
6.

Domain Name System (DNS)

3 lessons
Introduction to DNS
DNS Resolution Process
DNS Load Balancing and High Availability
7.

Caching

9 lessons
Introduction to Caching
Why is Caching Important?
Types of Caching
Cache Replacement Policies
Cache Invalidation
Cache Read Strategies
Cache Coherence and Consistency Models
Caching Challenges
Cache Performance Metrics
8.

CDN

4 lessons
What is CDN?
Origin Server vs. Edge Server
CDN Architecture
Push CDN vs. Pull CDN
9.

Data Partitioning

5 lessons
Introduction to Data Partitioning
Partitioning Methods
Data Sharding Techniques
Benefits of Data Partitioning
Common Problems Associated with Data Partitioning
10.

Proxies

3 lessons
What is a Proxy Server?
Uses of Proxies
VPN vs. Proxy Server
11.

Redundancy and Replication

4 lessons
What is Redundancy?
What is Replication?
Replication Methods
Data Backup vs. Disaster Recovery
12.

CAP & PACELC Theorems

6 lessons
Introduction to CAP Theorem
Components of CAP Theorem
Trade-offs in CAP Theorem
Examples of CAP Theorem in Practice
Beyond CAP Theorem
System Design Trade-offs in Interviews
13.

Databases (SQL vs. NoSQL)

10 lessons
Introduction to Databases
SQL Databases
NoSQL Databases
SQL vs. NoSQL
ACID vs BASE Properties
Real-World Examples and Case Studies
SQL Normalization and Denormalization
In-Memory Database vs. On-Disk Database
Data Replication vs. Data Mirroring
Database Federation
14.

Indexes

2 lessons
What are Indexes?
Types of Indexes
15.

Bloom Filters

4 lessons
Introduction to Bloom Filters
Benefits & Limitations of Bloom Filters
Variants and Extensions of Bloom Filters
Applications of Bloom Filters
16.

Long-Polling vs. WebSockets vs. Server-Sent Events

1 lesson
Difference Between Long-Polling, WebSockets, and Server-Sent Events
17.

Quorum

1 lesson
What is Quorum?
18.

Heartbeat

1 lesson
What is Heartbeat?
19.

Checksum

2 lessons
What is Checksum?
Uses of Checksum
20.

Leader and Follower

1 lesson
What is Leader and Follower Pattern?
21.

Security

7 lessons
What is Security and Privacy?
What is Authentication?
What is Authorization?
Authentication vs. Authorization
OAuth vs. JWT for Authentication
What is Encryption?
What are DDoS Attacks?
22.

Distributed Messaging System

6 lessons
Introduction to Messaging System
Introduction to Kafka
Messaging patterns
Popular Messaging Queue Systems
RabbitMQ vs. Kafka vs. ActiveMQ
Scalability and Performance
23.

Distributed File Systems

3 lessons
What is a Distributed File System?
Architecture of a Distributed File System
Key Components of a DFS
24.

Misc Concepts

8 lessons
Batch Processing vs. Stream Processing
XML vs. JSON
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Communication
Push vs. Pull Notification Systems
Microservices vs. Serverless Architecture
Message Queues vs. Service Bus
Stateful vs. Stateless Architecture
Event-Driven vs. Polling Architecture
25.

Final Quiz

1 lesson
Quiz
Grokking the System Design Interview
Ace your system design interview with the original Grokking the System Design Interview course by Design Gurus – ex-FAANG hiring managers. With 30K+ 5★ reviews, this course will help you master scalability, distributed systems, and more.
• 5 Chapters • 65 Lessons
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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 Requirements
Master 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 Interview
Learn what to avoid in system design interviews—like skipping trade-offs, ignoring requirements, poor communication, and rigid thinking.
2.

Glossary of System Design Basics

19 lessons
System Design Basics
Get familiar with core system design concepts, key architectural components, and building blocks of scalable, distributed software systems.
Key Characteristics of Distributed Systems
Explore key characteristics of distributed systems, including scalability, reliability, availability, efficiency, fault tolerance, and manageability.
Load Balancing
Learn how load balancing improves scalability and availability by distributing traffic using smart algorithms, health checks, and redundancy techniques.
Caching
Learn caching strategies to improve system performance, including cache types, eviction policies, read/write methods, and cache invalidation techniques.
Data Partitioning
Learn data partitioning techniques—horizontal, vertical, hybrid—and partitioning criteria to scale databases, improve performance, and balance workloads.
Indexes
Understand how database indexes optimize query performance, enable efficient lookups, and impact write operations in large-scale systems.
Proxies
Learn how forward and reverse proxies improve security, caching, and traffic control by mediating communication between clients and servers.
Redundancy and Replication
Learn how redundancy and replication improve system reliability and availability through failover strategies and synchronous, asynchronous, and semi-synchronous replication.
SQL vs. NoSQL
Compare relational and non-relational databases to understand schema flexibility, scalability, ACID compliance, and ideal use cases for each.
CAP Theorem
Understand why distributed systems must trade off between consistency, availability, and partition tolerance—only two of the three can be guaranteed at any time.
PACELC Theorem
Learn how PACELC extends CAP by showing that even without partitions, distributed systems must balance latency and consistency in replicated environments.
Consistent Hashing
Learn the architecture of scalable systems using consistent hashing for efficient data partitioning, replication, and dynamic node management.
Long-Polling vs WebSockets vs Server-Sent Events
Understand the system design of real-time communication protocols for scalable push-based updates between client and server.
Bloom Filters
Explore space-efficient system design using Bloom filters for fast, probabilistic membership checks with minimal memory and no false negatives.
Quorum
Design highly available distributed systems using quorum-based consistency models to coordinate read/write operations across replicated nodes.
Leader and Follower
Understand the architecture of leader-based replication in distributed systems for consistent writes, fault tolerance, and coordinated data synchronization.
Heartbeat
Learn how distributed systems use heartbeat signals to detect server failures and maintain reliable request routing and availability.
Checksum
Explore how distributed systems ensure data integrity by using checksums to detect and prevent data corruption during transmission.
Quiz
Test your understanding of system design basic concepts.
3.

System Design Trade-offs

New
22 lessons
Importance of Discussing Trade-offs
Demonstrating trade-offs shows maturity, critical thinking, and real-world design skills crucial for scalable, practical system architecture.
Strong vs Eventual Consistency
Explore consistency models in distributed systems, comparing strong and eventual consistency in terms of latency, availability, accuracy, and scalability trade-offs.
Latency vs Throughput
Understand the difference between latency and throughput, and explore strategies to optimize response time and data processing capacity in systems.
ACID vs BASE Properties in Databases
Understand key differences between ACID and BASE database models, balancing consistency, availability, scalability, and fault tolerance in distributed systems.
Read-Through vs Write-Through Cache
Explore read-through vs write-through caching strategies for improving read performance, data consistency, and integrity in scalable systems.
Batch Processing vs Stream Processing
Compare batch vs stream processing in system design—complexity, resource efficiency, continuous vs scheduled data flow, and real-time responsiveness.
Load Balancer vs. API Gateway
Understand differences between Load Balancer and API Gateway in scalable architectures—traffic distribution, request routing, API management, and availability.
API Gateway vs Direct Service Exposure
Explore API Gateway vs Direct Service Exposure in distributed systems—compare centralized routing and security with direct access and reduced latency.
Proxy vs. Reverse Proxy
Understand how proxies and reverse proxies manage client and server traffic in distributed system design to improve security, caching, and scalability.
API Gateway vs. Reverse Proxy
Learn the difference between API Gateways and Reverse Proxies in distributed systems, focusing on routing, security, load balancing, and orchestration.
SQL vs. NoSQL
Compare 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 Replication
Understand Primary-Replica vs Peer-to-Peer replication models, including data flow, consistency, scalability, fault tolerance, and use cases.
Data Compression vs Data Deduplication
Learn the differences between data compression and deduplication for optimizing storage—focus, scope, efficiency, and best-use scenarios.
Server-Side Caching vs Client-Side Caching
Understand server-side vs client-side caching—how they differ in location, control, performance impact, and best use across web apps.
REST vs RPC
Learn 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. Webhooks
Compare real-time delivery strategies—Polling, Long-Polling, WebSockets, and Webhooks—for scalable, event-driven system communication.
CDN Usage vs Direct Server Serving
Learn 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-based
Learn serverless system design benefits like dynamic scaling and reduced ops versus traditional server hosting with full control and overhead.
Stateful vs Stateless Architecture
Explore 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 Storage
Explore hybrid cloud vs all-cloud storage architectures, balancing scalability, compliance, and control for secure, flexible enterprise data strategies.
Token Bucket vs Leaky Bucket
Learn how Token Bucket and Leaky Bucket algorithms manage network traffic shaping, rate limiting, and handling of bursty data.
Read Heavy vs Write Heavy System
Explore 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
Contact Us
Other courses
Grokking the Advanced System Design Interview
Learn system design through architectural review of real systems.
• 11 Chapters • 118 Lessons
Hide Contents
1.

Introduction

1 lesson
What Is This Course About?
2.

Dynamo: How to design a key value store?

12 lessons
Dynamo: Introduction
High-Level Architecture
Data Partitioning
Replication
Vector Clocks and Conflicting Data
The Life of Dynamo’s put() & get() Operations
Anti-entropy Through Merkle Trees
Gossip Protocol
Dynamo Characteristics and Criticism
Summary: Dynamo
Quiz: Dynamo
Mock Interview: Dynamo
3.

Cassandra: How to Design a Wide-column NoSQL Database?

12 lessons
Cassandra: Introduction
High-level Architecture
Replication
Cassandra Consistency Levels
Gossiper
Anatomy of Cassandra's Write Operation
Anatomy of Cassandra's Read Operation
Compaction
Tombstones
Summary: Cassandra
Quiz: Cassandra
Mock Interview: Cassandra
4.

Kafka: How to Design a Distributed Messaging System?

13 lessons
Messaging Systems: Introduction
Kafka: Introduction
High-level Architecture
Kafka: Deep Dive
Consumer Groups
Kafka Workflow
Role of ZooKeeper
Controller Broker
Kafka Delivery Semantics
Kafka Characteristics
Summary: Kafka
Quiz: Kafka
Mock Interview: Kafka
5.

Chubby: How to Design a Distributed Locking Service?

14 lessons
Chubby: Introduction
High-level Architecture
Design Rationale
How Chubby Works
File, Directories, and Handles
Locks, Sequencers, and Lock-delays
Sessions and Events
Master Election and Chubby Events
Caching
Database
Scaling Chubby
Summary: Chubby
Quiz: Chubby
Mock Interview: Chubby
6.

GFS: How to Design a Distributed File System Storage?

15 lessons
Google File System: Introduction
High-level Architecture
Single Master and Large Chunk Size
Metadata
Master Operations
Anatomy of a Read Operation
Anatomy of a Write Operation
Anatomy of an Append Operation
GFS Consistency Model and Snapshotting
Fault Tolerance, High Availability, and Data Integrity
Garbage Collection
Criticism on GFS
Summary: GFS
Quiz: GFS
Mock Interview: GFS
7.

HDFS: How to Design File Storage System?

12 lessons
Hadoop Distributed File System: Introduction
High-level Architecture
Deep Dive
Anatomy of a Read Operation
Anatomy of a Write Operation
Data Integrity & Caching
Fault Tolerance
HDFS High Availability (HA)
HDFS Characteristics
Summary: HDFS
Quiz: HDFS
Mock Interview: HDFS
8.

BigTable: How to Design a Wide Column Storage System?

15 lessons
BigTable: Introduction
BigTable Data Model
System APIs
Partitioning and High-level Architecture
SSTable
GFS and Chubby
Bigtable Components
Working with Tablets
The Life of BigTable's Read & Write Operations
Fault Tolerance and Compaction
BigTable Refinements
BigTable Characteristics
Summary: BigTable
Quiz: BigTable
Mock Interview: BigTable
9.

System Design Patterns

21 lessons
Introduction: System Design Patterns
1. Bloom Filters
2. Consistent Hashing
3. Quorum
4. Leader and Follower
5. Write-ahead Log
6. Segmented Log
7. High-Water Mark
8. Lease
9. Heartbeat
10. Gossip Protocol
11. Phi Accrual Failure Detection
12. Split Brain
13. Fencing
14. Checksum
15. Vector Clocks
16. CAP Theorem
17. PACELC Theorem
18. Hinted Handoff
19. Read Repair
20. Merkle Trees
10.

Final Assessment

2 lessons
Quiz I
Quiz II
11.

Appendix

1 lesson
Contact us
Grokking Microservices Design Patterns
Master microservices design patterns for designing scalable, resilient, and more manageable systems.
• 14 Chapters • 93 Lessons
Hide Contents
1.

Introduction

2 lessons
Who Should Take This Course?
The Course at a Glance
2.

Strangler Fig Pattern

6 lessons
Introduction
The Problem: Legacy Systems
The Strangler Pattern: A Solution
The Architecture of the Strangler Pattern
Strangler Pattern: A Detailed Example
Key Insights and Implications
3.

API Gateway Pattern

5 lessons
Introduction to the API Gateway Pattern
Advantages of API Gateway Pattern
API Gateway Pattern: An Example
Performance Implications
System Design Example
4.

Backends for Frontends (BFF) Pattern

6 lessons
Introduction to BFF
The Problem: Traditional Backend Models
The Architecture of the BFF Pattern
BFF Pattern: An Example
Performance Implications
System Design Examples
5.

Service Discovery Pattern

9 lessons
What is Service Discovery Pattern?
The Problem: Service Coordination in Distributed Systems
Service Discovery Pattern: A Solution
The Architecture of the Service Discovery Pattern
The Inner Workings of the Service Discovery Pattern
Service Discovery Pattern: An Example
Performance Implications and Special Considerations
System Design Examples
Security Considerations
6.

Circuit Breaker Pattern

7 lessons
Introduction
The Problem: The Struggles of Distributed Systems and Service Failures
The Circuit Breaker Pattern: An Effective Shield Against Cascading Failures
Circuit Breaker Pattern: An Example
Performance Implications and Special Considerations
System Design Examples
Summary
7.

Bulkhead Pattern

9 lessons
Introduction
The Problem: Failure Propagation in Distributed Systems
The Bulkhead Pattern: A Solution
The Architecture
The Inner Workings
Bulkhead Pattern: A Example
Performance Implications and Special Considerations
System Design Examples
Conclusion
8.

Retry Pattern

7 lessons
Introduction
The Retry Pattern: A Solution to Unreliable External Resources
The Architecture of the Retry Pattern
Retry Pattern: An Example
Performance Implications
Use Cases and System Design Examples
Conclusion
9.

Sidecar Pattern

7 lessons
Introduction to the Sidecar Pattern
The Problem: Monolithic Application Management
A Solution to the Monolithic Mayhem
The Architecture of the Sidecar Pattern
Sidecar Pattern: Bringing Theory to Practice with an Example
Performance Implications
System Design Examples: Bringing the Sidecar Pattern to Life
10.

Saga Pattern

9 lessons
Introduction to Saga Pattern
The Problem: Traditional Transaction Models
The Saga Pattern: A Solution
The Architecture of the Saga Pattern
The Inner Workings of the Saga Pattern
Saga Pattern: A Example
Performance Implications
System Design Examples
Conclusion
11.

Event-Driven Architecture Pattern

9 lessons
Introduction
The Problem: Managing Complex Interactions in Distributed Systems
Event-Driven Architecture: A Promising Solution
The Architecture of the Event-Driven Architecture Pattern
The Inner Workings of the Event-Driven Architecture Pattern
Event-Driven Architecture Pattern: An Example
Performance Implications and Special Considerations
Use Cases and System Design Examples
Conclusion
12.

CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation)

8 lessons
Introduction
The Problem: Traditional CRUD Operations
CQRS Pattern: A Solution
The Architecture of the CQRS Pattern
The Inner Workings of the CQRS Pattern
CQRS Pattern: An Example
Issues, Special Considerations, and Performance Implications
System Design Examples
13.

Configuration Externalization Pattern

8 lessons
Introduction
The Problem: Configuration Management in a Microservices Architecture
The Solution: Configuration Externalization Pattern
Unveiling the Architecture: How Does Configuration Externalization Work?
Delving into Code: An Example
Considerations and Implications
Use Cases and Real-world Examples
Conclusion
14.

Course Wrap-up

1 lesson
Embrace the Future of Software Architecture

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