Professional
Software Interview Prep: System Design
This course is a comprehensive program designed to transform software engineers into capable system architects ready to tackle FAANG-level system design interviews. While our foundational course, "Software Interview Preparation: Coding and Problem Solving", focuses on algorithmic patterns and code optimization within a 30-45 minute window, this course focuses on macro-level engineering. Students will start with the fundamental building blocks of large-scale software systems, learn the trade-offs of each component (when to use what), and incrementally practice designing highly scalable, available, and fault-tolerant architectures.
For new grads and early-career engineers, from estimation math to full mock reviews.
What they'll walk away with
- Component Mastery: Understand the core building blocks (Load Balancers, API Gateways, CDNs, Caching layers, Message Queues) and exactly when and why to use them.
- Data at Scale: Master the CAP theorem, SQL vs. NoSQL trade-offs, database sharding, and replication strategies.
- Standardized Framework: Learn a repeatable 4-step framework to approach any open-ended system design interview question.
- Real-World Architecture: Successfully whiteboard the architectures of massive systems like Twitter, YouTube, Uber, and Google Docs.
Curriculum
To ensure the subject is digestible, this course is broken down into two logical levels: Foundations and Applied Architecture.
The Building Blocks
- Core Building Blocks & Scaling
The Framework & Estimation
- A repeatable 4-step interview structure
- Latency numbers worth memorizing
- QPS, storage & bandwidth math
- SLA, SLO & SLI vocabulary
Networking & Load Balancing
- L4 vs. L7 load balancing
- Reverse proxies & DNS resolution
- CDN architecture
- HTTP/REST, WebSockets & gRPC
Database Architecture
- SQL vs. NoSQL by access pattern
- Indexing: B-Trees vs. LSM trees
- Replication & sharding
- Consistent hashing
- CAP/PACELC Theory
Caching Strategies
- Cache-aside, write-through, write-back
- Eviction: LRU vs. LFU
- Cache stampede & how to prevent it
Async Processing & Queues
- Pub/sub & event-driven architecture
- Kafka vs. RabbitMQ
- Delivery guarantees
API Design & Rate Limiting
- Designing a clean REST/gRPC contract
- Token bucket & leaky bucket
- Sliding window counters
- Distributed locks
Read-Heavy & High-Throughput Systems
- Fan-out strategies for read-heavy traffic
- Blob storage, CDN chunking & write-ahead logs
- Case study: design a URL shortener end to end — estimation, encoding, and architecture.
Real-Time & Write-Heavy Systems
- WebSocket connections & presence
- Push vs. pull fan-out models
- Case study: a Twitter/X-style newsfeed, then a checklist for mock interviews.
Skills covered
What you'll need
- Preparation: Students must read up on the weekly system component (e.g., Caching, CDNs) prior to class.
- In-Class Engagement: System design is highly subjective and verbal. Active participation and "whiteboarding" (verbalizing logical thought processes and drawing architecture diagrams) is mandatory.
- Mock Interviews: Students will participate in graded mock interview simulations to ensure regular exposure to the high-pressure interview format.
Keep going
Other courses on this track
Most learners move through two or three courses as they grow.
Try Software Interview Prep: System Design for free.
One live demo class, no commitment. Rates for this course are published per class.