System Design 101#

Master the Fundamentals of Scalable Systems#

Welcome to the System Design 101 course! This course is designed to teach you the core concepts of designing large-scale distributed systems. Whether you are a student, a fresher, or looking to refresh your knowledge, this course will guide you through the essential building blocks of modern software architecture.

What you will learn#

In this course, you will learn how to:

  1. Think in Systems: Understand the trade-offs between different design choices.
  2. Design for Scale: Master concepts like vertical vs. horizontal scaling, load balancing, and sharding.
  3. Ensure Reliability: Learn strategies for fault tolerance, redundancy, and high availability.
  4. Choose the Right Tools: Understand when to use SQL vs. NoSQL, caching strategies, and message queues.
  5. Model with Sruja: Learn how to use the Sruja architecture language to document and visualize your designs effectively.

Course Modules#

  1. Module 1: Fundamentals
    • Core concepts including Scalability, Availability, and the CAP Theorem.
  2. Module 2: Building Blocks
    • Deep dive into Load Balancers, Databases, Caching, and Queues.
  3. Module 3: Advanced Modeling
    • Patterns for Microservices, Event-Driven Architecture, and more.
  4. Module 4: Production Readiness
    • Observability, Security, and Deployment strategies.

Prerequisites#

  • Basic understanding of computer science fundamentals (networking, databases, OS).
  • Familiarity with at least one programming language.
  • Curiosity to learn how massive systems like Google, Facebook, and Netflix are built.
Backward Courses Module 1: Fundamentals Forward