System Design Tutorial

System Design is the process of designing the architecture, components, and interfaces for a system so that it meets the end-user requirements. This specifically designed System Design tutorial will help you to learn and master System Design concepts in the most efficient way, from the basics to the advanced level.

Importance of System Design

System design is important for anyone who wants to build a robust, scalable, and efficient software application. Whether you are building a small-scale application or a large one, understanding system design allows you to architect solutions that can handle real-world complexities.

• Scalability and Reliability: System design ensures systems can grow and handle increased demand without failure.
• Efficient Resource Management: It helps in optimizing resource allocation, ensuring fast and responsive applications.
• Adaptability: System design enables the creation of systems that can evolve with changing business needs, reducing long-term costs.
• Architectural Understanding: Learning different system architectures (e.g., microservices, monolithic) helps in building applications suited to various needs.
• Interview Preparation: Mastering system design is key to excelling in system design interviews, commonly asked in tech company hiring processes.

Basics

Core concepts to get started with system design.

• System Design Introduction - HLD & LLD
• Functional and Non Functional Requirements

High Level Design

Focuses on system architecture, components, and their interactions.

• Introduction to High Level Design
• High Level Design Diagram

System Architectural Styles

Common architectural patterns used in system design.

• Monolithic Architecture
• Microservices
• Monolithic Vs Microservices Architecture
• Event-Driven Architecture
• Event-Driven Architecture in an E-commerce System
• Serverless Architecture
• Stateless and Stateful Systems
• Stateful Vs Stateless Architecture
• Pub/Sub Architecture

Scalability

Concepts and strategies for growing applications

• Scalability in System Design
• Horizontal and Vertical Scaling
• Choosing the Right Scalability Approach
• Designing Highly Scalable Systems
• Primary Scalability Bottlenecks in System Design

Databases in Designing Systems

Databases, storage systems, and how they are used in system design.

• Designing the Database
• Types of Database
• Choosing a Database - SQL or NoSQL
• File and Database Storage Systems
• Database Replication in System Design
• Types of Database Replication
• Database Sharding
• Data Partitioning
• Block, Object, and File Storage
• Normalization Process in DBMS
• SQL Query Optimization
• Denormalization in Databases
• Intro to Redis

Consistency, Availability, Reliability & Maintainability

Core system qualities that impact user experience and system health.

• Availability in System Design
• Achieving High Availability
• Consistency in System Design
• Consistency pattern
• CAP Theorem
• Reliability in System Design
• Fault Tolerance in System Design
• Maintainability

Load Balancing

Traffic distribution techniques in system design.

• Load Balancer
• Types of Load Balancer
• Load Balancing Algorithms
• Concurrency and Parallelism
• Stateless Vs Stateful Load Balancing
• Load Balancing Vs Failover
• Consistent Hashing

Latency, Throughput and Caching

Performance optimization metrics and caching strategies.

• Latency and Throughput
• Caching in System Design
• Distributed Cache
• Design Distributed Cache
• Edge Caching
• CDN Vs Edge Server
• Cache Eviction Policies
• Cold and Warm Cache in System Design

API Gateway, Message Queues & Rate Limiting

Focuses on orchestrating communication, queuing messages, and limiting traffic in scalable systems.

• API Gateway
• Message Queues
• Rate Limiting
• Rate Limiting Algorithm

Protocols, CDN, Proxies & WebSockets

Networking, caching, and real-time communication fundamentals.

• Communication Protocols
• Domain Name System
• DNS Caching
• Flushing(Reset) of DNS Cache
• Time to Live(TTL)
• Content Delivery Network(CDN)
• Proxies in System Design
• Forward Proxy vs Reverse Proxy
• Web and Application Server
• Long Polling and Short Polling 
• Websockets

Event-Driven Architecture

Explains event-driven concepts, patterns, and comparisons commonly discussed in system design interviews.

• Introduction
• Event Sourcing Pattern
• Event Sourcing Vs Event Streaming
• Event-Driven APIs in Microservice Architectures
• Error Handling in Event-Driven Architecture
• Restore State in an Event-Based, Message-Driven Microservice Architecture on Failure Scenario
• Event-Driven Architecture Patterns in Cloud Native Applications
• Request-driven Vs Event-driven Microservices
• Event-Driven Architecture Vs Microservices Architecture
• Message-Driven Architecture Vs Event-Driven Architecture

Testing

Testing methods and deployment pipelines to build robust systems.

• Unit Testing
• Integration Testing
• Load Testing
• Stress Testing
• CI/CD Pipeline

Security Measures

Explains authentication, authorization, encryption, and disaster recovery in system design.

• Security Measures in System Design
• Authentication and Authorization
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS)
• Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SSDLC)
• Data Backup and Disaster Recovery

Distributed System Design

Explains consensus algorithms, tracing, and security considerations in distributed system design.

• Introduction
• Consensus Algorithms in Distributed System
• Distributed Tracing
• Secure Communication in Distributed System
• Design Issues of Distributed System

Cost & Performance Optimizations

Explains how to optimize system performance and estimate software costs effectively.

• Software Cost Estimation
• Performance Optimization Techniques
• Cost Vs Performance

Low Level Design(LLD)

Detailed design of system components, focusing on implementation-level structure and code organization

Core Concepts

Explains how to design classes, modules, and interfaces in system design interviews.

• Object-Oriented Programming(OOP) Concepts
• Modularity and Interfaces
• Low Level Design or LLD
• Difference between High Level Design(HLD) and Low Level Design(LLD)

Design Principles

Explains SOLID, DRY, KISS, and YAGNI principles for robust software design

• SOLID Principles
• DRY Principle
• KISS Principle
• YAGNI Principle

UML

Visualizing system design using UML diagrams.

• Unified Modeling Language (UML)

Design Patterns

Explains commonly asked design patterns and their applications in scalable software design.

• Design patterns

Interview Questions & Answers of System Design

Real-world system design examples and common interview questions to practice scalable and efficient architectures.

• Common Design Interview Questions

System Design Interview Preparation Guide

Practical advice and strategies to effectively tackle system design questions in interviews.

• Cracking System Design Round in Interviews
• Tips to Crack Low-Level System Design Interviews
• Common System Design Concepts for Interview Preparation
• Steps To Approach Object-Oriented Design Questions in Interview