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Before we start this course, let's talk about what even is system design.

An IP address is a unique address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network. IP stands for "Internet Protocol", which is the set of rules…

The OSI Model is a logical and conceptual model that defines network communication used by systems open to interconnection and communication with other…

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is connection-oriented, meaning once a connection has been established, data can be transmitted in both directions. TCP has…

Earlier we learned about IP addresses that enable every machine to connect with other machines. But as we know humans are more comfortable with names than…

Load balancing lets us distribute incoming network traffic across multiple resources ensuring high availability and reliability by sending requests only to…

At a high level, a computer cluster is a group of two or more computers, or nodes, that run in parallel to achieve a common goal. This allows workloads…

"There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things." - Phil Karlton

A content delivery network (CDN) is a geographically distributed group of servers that work together to provide fast delivery of internet content. Generally…

A proxy server is an intermediary piece of hardware/software sitting between the client and the backend server. It receives requests from clients and relays…

Availability is the time a system remains operational to perform its required function in a specific period. It is a simple measure of the percentage of time…

Scalability is the measure of how well a system responds to changes by adding or removing resources to meet demands.

Storage is a mechanism that enables a system to retain data, either temporarily or permanently. This topic is mostly skipped over in the context of system…

A database is an organized collection of structured information, or data, typically stored electronically in a computer system. A database is usually…

A SQL (or relational) database is a collection of data items with pre-defined relationships between them. These items are organized as a set of tables with…

NoSQL is a broad category that includes any database that doesn't use SQL as its primary data access language. These types of databases are also sometimes…

In the world of databases, there are two main types of solutions, SQL (relational) and NoSQL (non-relational) databases. Both of them differ in the way they…

Replication is a process that involves sharing information to ensure consistency between redundant resources such as multiple databases, to improve…

Indexes are well known when it comes to databases, they are used to improve the speed of data retrieval operations on the data store. An index makes the…

Before we go any further, let's look at some commonly used terms in normalization and denormalization.

Let's discuss the ACID and BASE consistency models.

CAP theorem states that a distributed system can deliver only two of the three desired characteristics Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance (CAP).

The PACELC theorem is an extension of the CAP theorem. The CAP theorem states that in the case of network partitioning (P) in a distributed system, one has to…

A transaction is a series of database operations that are considered to be a "single unit of work". The operations in a transaction either all succeed, or they…

A distributed transaction is a set of operations on data that is performed across two or more databases. It is typically coordinated across separate nodes…

Before we discuss sharding, let's talk about data partitioning:

Let's first understand the problem we're trying to solve.

Federation (or functional partitioning) splits up databases by function. The federation architecture makes several distinct physical databases appear as one…

N-tier architecture divides an application into logical layers and physical tiers. Layers are a way to separate responsibilities and manage dependencies. Each…

A message broker is a software that enables applications, systems, and services to communicate with each other and exchange information. The message broker…

A message queue is a form of service-to-service communication that facilitates asynchronous communication. It asynchronously receives messages from producers…

Similar to a message queue, publish-subscribe is also a form of service-to-service communication that facilitates asynchronous communication. In a pub/sub…

An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is an architectural pattern whereby a centralized software component performs integrations between applications. It performs…

A monolith is a self-contained and independent application. It is built as a single unit and is responsible for not just a particular task, but can perform…

Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) is about using events as a way to communicate within a system. Generally, leveraging a message broker to publish and consume…

Instead of storing just the current state of the data in a domain, use an append-only store to record the full series of actions taken on that data. The store…

Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) is an architectural pattern that divides a system's actions into commands and queries. It was first described…

The API Gateway is an API management tool that sits between a client and a collection of backend services. It is a single entry point into a system that…

A good API design is always a crucial part of any system. But it is also important to pick the right API technology. So, in this tutorial, we will briefly…

Web applications were initially developed around a client-server model, where the web client is always the initiator of transactions like requesting data from…

Geohashing is a geocoding method used to encode geographic coordinates such as latitude and longitude into short alphanumeric strings. It was created by…

The circuit breaker is a design pattern used to detect failures and encapsulates the logic of preventing a failure from constantly recurring during…

Rate limiting refers to preventing the frequency of an operation from exceeding a defined limit. In large-scale systems, rate limiting is commonly used to…

Service discovery is the detection of services within a computer network. Service Discovery Protocol (SDP) is a networking standard that accomplishes the…

Let's briefly discuss SLA, SLO, and SLI. These are mostly related to the business and site reliability side of things but good to know nonetheless.

Disaster recovery (DR) is a process of regaining access and functionality of the infrastructure after events like a natural disaster, cyber attack, or even…

Before we discuss virtualization vs containerization, let's learn what are virtual machines (VMs) and Containers.

OAuth 2.0, which stands for Open Authorization, is a standard designed to provide consented access to resources on behalf of the user, without ever sharing the…

Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication process in which a user is provided access to multiple applications or websites by using only a single set of login…

Let's briefly discuss some important communication security protocols such as SSL, TLS, and mTLS. I would say that from a "big picture" system design…

System design is a very extensive topic and system design interviews are designed to evaluate your capability to produce technical solutions to abstract…

Let's design a URL shortener, similar to services like Bitly, TinyURL.

Let's design a WhatsApp like instant messaging service, similar to services like Facebook Messenger, and WeChat.

Let's design a Twitter like social media service, similar to services like Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Let's design a Netflix like video streaming service, similar to services like Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Hulu, Youtube, Vimeo, etc.

Let's design an Uber like ride-hailing service, similar to services like Lyft, OLA Cabs, etc.

Congratulations, you've finished the course!

Here are the resources that were referenced while creating this course.