A complete, step-by-step system design tutorial series. From basic concepts to designing real systems like URL shorteners, chat apps, and video streaming platforms. Every article has architecture diagrams, code examples, and interview tips.
No complicated jargon. Just simple explanations and practical knowledge.
Part 1: Foundations
Learn the core building blocks of scalable systems.
| # | Tutorial | What You Will Learn |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What is System Design? | System design basics, HLD vs LLD, estimation, interview framework |
| 2 | Scalability | Horizontal vs vertical scaling, stateless services, auto-scaling |
| 3 | Load Balancers | Algorithms, L4 vs L7, health checks, Nginx, HAProxy |
| 4 | Caching | Redis, Memcached, CDN, eviction policies, thundering herd |
| 5 | Databases | SQL vs NoSQL, ACID, sharding, replication, indexing |
| 6 | CAP Theorem (coming soon) | Consistency, availability, partition tolerance, PACELC |
Part 2: Building Blocks
Master the key components used in every large-scale system.
| # | Tutorial | What You Will Learn |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Message Queues (coming soon) | Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS, event-driven architecture |
| 8 | API Design (coming soon) | REST, GraphQL, gRPC, API gateway |
| 9 | Microservices vs Monolith (coming soon) | When to use each, service discovery, data management |
| 10 | Proxies (coming soon) | Forward proxy, reverse proxy, API gateway |
| 11 | Rate Limiting (coming soon) | Token bucket, sliding window, distributed rate limiting |
| 12 | Consistent Hashing (coming soon) | Hash rings, virtual nodes, rebalancing |
Part 3: Real System Designs
Design real systems step by step — the same way you would in an interview.
| # | Tutorial | What You Will Learn |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Design a URL Shortener (coming soon) | Base62 encoding, redirection, analytics |
| 14 | Design a Chat System (coming soon) | WebSockets, message storage, presence |
| 15 | Design a News Feed (coming soon) | Fan-out, ranking, timeline generation |
| 16 | Design a Video Platform (coming soon) | Upload pipeline, transcoding, streaming |
| 17 | Design a Notification System (coming soon) | Push, email, SMS, priority queues |
| 18 | Design a Search Engine (coming soon) | Inverted index, ranking, crawling |
Part 4: Advanced
Deep-dive into distributed systems patterns.
| # | Tutorial | What You Will Learn |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | Distributed Transactions (coming soon) | Saga pattern, two-phase commit, eventual consistency |
| 20 | Observability (coming soon) | Monitoring, logging, tracing, alerting |
Who is This For?
- Software developers preparing for system design interviews at top companies
- Backend engineers who want to build scalable, reliable systems
- Frontend developers who want to understand the full stack
- Anyone who wants to move from junior to senior engineering
How to Use This Series
Start from Tutorial #1 and go in order. Each article builds on the previous one. If you already know the basics, jump to Part 2 (Tutorial #7) for building blocks or Part 3 (Tutorial #13) for real system designs.
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