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? (Coming Soon) | System design basics, HLD vs LLD, estimation, interview framework |
| 2 | Scalability (Coming Soon) | Horizontal vs vertical scaling, stateless services, auto-scaling |
| 3 | Load Balancers (Coming Soon) | Algorithms, L4 vs L7, health checks, Nginx, HAProxy |
| 4 | Caching (Coming Soon) | Redis, Memcached, CDN, eviction policies, thundering herd |
| 5 | Databases (Coming Soon) | 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 | Rate Limiting (Coming Soon) | Token bucket, sliding window, distributed rate limiting |
| 11 | Consistent Hashing (Coming Soon) | Hash rings, virtual nodes, even distribution |
| 12 | Data Partitioning (Coming Soon) | Sharding strategies, shard key selection, 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, caching, analytics |
| 14 | Design a Chat System (Coming Soon) | WebSockets, message storage, presence, push notifications |
| 15 | Design a News Feed (Coming Soon) | Fan-out on write vs read, ranking, trending topics |
| 16 | Design a Video Streaming Service (Coming Soon) | Upload pipeline, transcoding, adaptive bitrate, CDN |
| 17 | Design a File Storage System (Coming Soon) | Block storage, sync, deduplication, conflict resolution |
| 18 | Design a Notification System (Coming Soon) | Push, email, SMS, priority queues, deduplication |
Part 4: Advanced
Deep-dive into advanced topics and interview preparation.
| # | Tutorial | What You Will Learn |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | Design a Search Engine (Coming Soon) | Web crawling, inverted index, PageRank, vector search |
| 20 | Interview Tips and Cheat Sheet (Coming Soon) | 4-step framework, estimation cheat sheet, practice plan |
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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