System Design

System Design Interviews

Learn to USE system design knowledge under interview pressure. 20 reusable interview patterns plus dozens of full case-study walk-throughs - taught by an Amazon Bar Raiser who has run 300+ interviews.

Intermediate314163 lessons9 free lessonssystem-designinterview-preppatternscase-studiesdistributed-systems

System Design Interviews: Patterns & Case Studies

By the time you take this course you already have the concepts - from Fundamentals, from Advanced, or from work. What you're missing is the ability to walk into a 45–60 minute interview and demonstrate that knowledge fluently, out loud, to a stranger with a laptop. That's a different skill, and it's the one this course trains.

It's pattern-driven. Rather than memorising case studies, you learn ~20 reusable interview patterns - real-time updates, fan-out, high read/write traffic, hot keys, distributed counting, leader election, failure handling, recommendations, multi-region, distributed transactions, and more - that let you construct an answer to almost any question from primitives.

You'll start with orientation, a must-know quick reference, and the concept areas through an interview lens, then four pattern sets and the 7-step answering framework. Finally a large library of full case-study walk-throughs (URL shortener, Pastebin, news feed, Instagram, chat, ride-hailing, search autocomplete, web crawler, ad-click aggregator, and many more) - each case study worked end-to-end through its 8 steps: requirements → estimation → API → high-level design → data model → caching → scaling → bottlenecks & trade-offs.

Taught primarily by Brandon Carter, a Principal Engineer and Amazon Bar Raiser who has watched 300+ candidates do this for real.

Module 1 is free to preview. The full course is a one-time purchase with lifetime access.

What you will learn

• What system design interviews actually test — and how the bar moves from L4 to Principal
• The 7-step answering framework: requirements → estimation → high-level → deep dives → trade-offs → bottlenecks → wrap-up
• ~20 reusable interview patterns you can compose into an answer for almost any question
• Real-time & high-traffic patterns: realtime updates, fan-out, high read/write, hot keys
• Scale, reliability & coordination: traffic spikes, large files, unique IDs, counting, leader election, failure handling
• Advanced application patterns: recommendations, multi-tenancy, multi-region, dedup, distributed transactions
• Estimation cheat-sheets, diagramming technique, and a database-choice decision tree under time pressure
• Dozens of full case-study walk-throughs, each broken into the 8 steps you would actually follow in an interview

Prerequisites

• System Design Fundamentals (or equivalent experience) — you should already know the concepts

Course outline

Module 1: Introduction

Introduction — 3 topics.

• What Are System Design Interviews? 12 min read
• Types of System Design Questions 13 min read
• Expectations by Level and Years of Experience 14 min read

Module 2: Must-Know Topics - Quick Reference

Must-Know Topics - Quick Reference - 4 topics.

• Must-Know Concepts - The Interview Checklist 11 min read
• Must-Know Technologies - Which Tool When 10 min read Pro lesson
• Must-Know Tradeoffs - The Language of Senior Engineers 12 min read Pro lesson
• Must-Know Data Structures - The Interview Toolkit 13 min read Pro lesson

Module 3: Concept Deep Dives - Interview Lens

Concept Deep Dives - Interview Lens - 5 topics.

• Networking in Interviews - What to Say and When 11 min read
• Caching in Interviews - Where, What, and How to Invalidate 11 min read Pro lesson
• API Design in Interviews - Choosing and Defending Your Interface 10 min read Pro lesson
• Database Design in Interviews - Schema, Storage, and the Choices That Define Your Architecture 13 min read Pro lesson
• Distributed Systems in Interviews - The Patterns That Earn Senior Signal 13 min read Pro lesson

Module 4: Real-Time and High-Traffic Patterns

Real-Time and High-Traffic Patterns — 5 topics.

• Realtime Updates - Choosing Between Long Polling, SSE, and WebSockets 11 min read
• The Fanout Pattern - Push, Pull, and the Classic Social Feed Problem 10 min read Pro lesson
• High Read Traffic - The Toolkit for Read-Heavy Systems 11 min read Pro lesson
• High Write Traffic - Absorbing Millions of Writes Per Second 11 min read Pro lesson
• Handling Hot Keys - When One Key Gets All the Traffic 10 min read Pro lesson

Module 5: Scale and Reliability Patterns

Scale and Reliability Patterns — 5 topics.

• Handling Traffic Spikes - Building Systems That Survive the Unexpected 10 min read
• Handling Large Files - Upload, Store, and Serve at Scale 10 min read Pro lesson
• Media Streaming - Delivering Video and Audio at Netflix Scale 11 min read Pro lesson
• Handling Location Data - Geospatial Indexing and Proximity Search at Scale 11 min read Pro lesson
• Generating Unique IDs at Scale - Snowflake, UUID, and Beyond 11 min read Pro lesson

Module 6: Distributed Coordination Patterns

Distributed Coordination Patterns — 5 topics.

• Distributed Counting - When "How Many?" Becomes a Hard Problem 11 min read Pro lesson
• Leader Election - Picking One Boss When Everyone Is Equal 10 min read Pro lesson
• Failure Detection - Knowing When a Server Is Dead (And When It's Just Slow) 11 min read Pro lesson
• Handling Failures - Retries, Timeouts, Circuit Breakers, and Bulkheads 11 min read Pro lesson
• Removing Single Points of Failure - The Systematic Scan Every Design Needs 11 min read Pro lesson

Module 7: Advanced Application Patterns

Advanced Application Patterns — 5 topics.

• Recommendations - Building "You Might Also Like" in a System Design Interview 10 min read Pro lesson
• Multi-Tenancy - One System, Many Customers, Zero Data Leaks 10 min read Pro lesson
• Multi-Region Architecture - Serving Users on Every Continent Without Losing Data 10 min read Pro lesson
• Deduplicating Data - Making Sure You Only Store (and Process) Things Once 10 min read Pro lesson
• Distributed Transactions - When You Must Update Multiple Systems Atomically 11 min read Pro lesson

Module 8: Interview Tips

Interview Tips — 4 topics.

• The 7-Step Answering Framework - How to Structure 45 Minutes So the Interviewer Never Has to Redirect You 14 min read Pro lesson
• Estimation Cheatsheet - The Numbers Every Candidate Must Know Cold 10 min read Pro lesson
• Diagramming Tips - What to Draw, What to Skip, and How to Draw Fast 11 min read Pro lesson
• Choosing the Right Database - A Decision Tree for Interview Time Pressure 11 min read Pro lesson

Module 9: Case Studies - Basic Questions

Case Studies - Basic Questions - 2 topics.

• Design Pastebin 96 min read
• Design a URL Shortener 69 min read

Module 10: Case Study - Real-Time Communication

Case Study - Real-Time Communication - 5 topics.

• Design Google Docs 115 min read Pro lesson
• Design Live Comments 95 min read Pro lesson
• Design Slack 92 min read Pro lesson
• Design WhatsApp 91 min read Pro lesson
• Design Zoom 113 min read Pro lesson

Module 11: Case Study - Social Media

Case Study - Social Media - 3 topics.

• Design Facebook News Feed 111 min read Pro lesson
• Design Instagram 115 min read Pro lesson
• Design TikTok 113 min read Pro lesson

Module 12: Case Study - Content Platforms

Case Study - Content Platforms - 1 topics.

• Design Reddit 99 min read Pro lesson

Module 13: Case Study - Proximity & Matching

Case Study - Proximity & Matching - 1 topics.

• Design Tinder 98 min read Pro lesson

Module 14: Case Study - Media Streaming

Case Study - Media Streaming - 3 topics.

• Design Netflix 95 min read Pro lesson
• Design Spotify 105 min read Pro lesson
• Design YouTube 109 min read Pro lesson

Module 15: Case Study - Storage & File Systems

Case Study - Storage & File Systems - 2 topics.

• Design Gmail 98 min read Pro lesson
• Design Google Drive 99 min read Pro lesson

Module 16: Case Study - Live Streaming

Case Study - Live Streaming - 1 topics.

• Design Twitch 113 min read Pro lesson

Module 17: Case Study - Marketplace

Case Study - Marketplace - 1 topics.

• Design Airbnb 116 min read Pro lesson

Module 18: Case Study - Food Delivery

Case Study - Food Delivery - 1 topics.

• Design a Food Delivery Service 117 min read Pro lesson

Module 19: Case Study - Ride Hailing

Case Study - Ride Hailing - 1 topics.

• Design Uber 111 min read Pro lesson

Module 20: Case Study - Navigation

Case Study - Navigation - 1 topics.

• Design Google Maps 110 min read Pro lesson

Module 21: Case Study - Search Autocomplete

Case Study - Search Autocomplete - 1 topics.

• Design Search Autocomplete 104 min read Pro lesson

Module 22: Case Study - News Aggregator

Case Study - News Aggregator - 1 topics.

• Design a News Aggregator 98 min read Pro lesson

Module 23: Case Study - Web Crawler

Case Study - Web Crawler - 1 topics.

• Design a Web Crawler 93 min read Pro lesson

Module 24: Case Study - Google Search

Case Study - Google Search - 1 topics.

• Design Google Search 85 min read Pro lesson

Module 25: Case Study - Ad Click Aggregator

Case Study - Ad Click Aggregator - 1 topics.

• Design an Ad Click Aggregator 81 min read Pro lesson

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