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Mastering System Design - Your Ultimate Learning Journey from Basics to Advanced
- Why Learn System Design?
- The Roadmap: From Fundamentals to Real-World Applications
- How to Use This Guide
System design is a critical skill for software engineers, architects, and tech enthusiasts aiming to build scalable, reliable, and efficient systems. Whether you're preparing for interviews, planning to architect complex applications, or simply want to deepen your understanding, this structured learning path will guide you step-by-step.
Why Learn System Design?
Understanding system design helps you think about:
- Handling millions of users and huge data volumes
- Making systems fault-tolerant and highly available
- Balancing trade-offs between performance, cost, and complexity
The Roadmap: From Fundamentals to Real-World Applications
Here's a detailed schedule that takes you from the foundations of system design to advanced topics and practical system blueprints.
| Day | Topic | Focus | Visuals Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction to System Design | What is system design? Types of systems. Design principles | System design overview diagram |
| 2 | Requirements Gathering | Functional & non-functional requirements, use cases | Requirement flowchart |
| 3 | Scalability Concepts | Vertical vs horizontal scaling, load balancing basics | Load balancer & scaling diagrams |
| 4 | Database Fundamentals | Types of databases, CAP theorem, SQL vs NoSQL | Database types infographic |
| 5 | Caching | Why caching? Types of caches, cache eviction policies | Cache hierarchy and flow chart |
| 6 | Load Balancing & Proxies | Types of load balancers, reverse proxy, sticky sessions | Load balancer architecture |
| 7 | Data Partitioning & Sharding | Partitioning strategies, consistent hashing | Sharding and partitioning visuals |
| 8 | Messaging Queues & Event-Driven Architecture | Pub/Sub, message queues, asynchronous processing | Messaging flow diagrams |
| 9 | API Design & Rate Limiting | RESTful APIs, GraphQL, rate limiting techniques | API request flowcharts |
| 10 | Microservices & Monoliths | Comparing architectures, pros and cons | Architecture comparison diagrams |
| 11 | Security in System Design | Authentication, authorization, encryption basics | Security flow diagrams |
| 12 | Monitoring & Logging | Metrics, logs, tracing, alerting | Monitoring architecture |
| 13 | CAP Theorem Deep Dive | Consistency, Availability, Partition tolerance in detail | CAP theorem triangle |
| 14 | Designing Real-world Systems I | Design Twitter, WhatsApp basics | System block diagrams |
| 15 | Designing Real-world Systems II | Design Instagram, Uber basics | Interaction diagrams |
| 16 | Advanced Topics: Distributed Systems & Consensus Algorithms | Leader election, Paxos, Raft | Distributed system visuals |
| 17 | Advanced Topics: Data Lakes & Data Warehouses | Big data storage & querying | Data architecture diagrams |
| 18 | Final Project & Review | Design a system from scratch with all concepts learned | Customized diagrams |
How to Use This Guide
- Pace yourself: Study at a comfortable rhythm, whether daily or a few times a week.
- Engage actively: Try to draw your own diagrams as we go.
- Apply concepts: After theory, practice designing simple systems.
- Ask questions: I'm here to clarify and deepen your understanding.