Skip to content
/ system_design Public

A comprehensive, structured, and practical knowledge base for mastering system design concepts, microservices, and real-world architectures with tutorials, patterns, and case studies for frontend, backend, and distributed systems.

License

MIT license
8 stars 1 fork Branches Tags Activity
Star
Notifications You must be signed in to change notification settings

Ritahchanger/system_design

BranchesTags

Repository files navigation

System Design Guide

A comprehensive guide to system design concepts, patterns, and best practices for building scalable, secure, and maintainable distributed systems.

📚 Table of Contents

Overview

This repository serves as a complete reference for system design, covering everything from fundamental concepts to advanced patterns and real-world case studies. Whether you're preparing for system design interviews or architecting production systems, this guide provides practical insights and battle-tested approaches.

Repository Structure

system_design/
├── api-gateways/          # API Gateway patterns and implementations
├── caching/               # Caching strategies and architectures
├── case-studies/          # Real-world system design examples
├── databases/             # Database design and scaling
├── infrastructure/        # Infrastructure and deployment
├── interviews/            # Interview preparation guides
├── microservices/         # Microservices architecture
├── scalability/           # Scaling strategies and patterns
├── security/              # Security best practices
└── frontend_system_design_overview.md

Core Topics

🚪 API Gateways

Learn about API Gateway patterns, routing, security, and scaling strategies.

Key Topics:

  • Architecture patterns
  • Routing strategies
  • Security implementations
  • Caching at gateway level
  • Monitoring and observability
  • Scaling techniques
  • Pros and cons analysis

💾 Caching

Master caching strategies to improve performance and reduce latency.

Key Topics:

  • Caching strategies (Cache-aside, Write-through, Write-back)
  • Architecture patterns
  • Cache invalidation
  • Distributed caching
  • Setup and configuration

🗄️ Databases

Deep dive into database design, selection, and optimization.

Key Topics:

  • SQL vs NoSQL
  • Sharding and partitioning
  • Replication strategies
  • CAP theorem
  • Database scaling

📈 Scalability

Comprehensive guide to building scalable systems.

Key Topics:

🔒 Security

Essential security patterns and practices for distributed systems.

Key Topics:

🎯 Interviews

Prepare for system design interviews with structured frameworks and practice questions.

Key Topics:

  • Interview process framework
  • Estimation techniques
  • Trade-offs and decisions
  • Practice questions
  • Engineer interview guide

🔧 Microservices

Patterns and practices for microservices architecture.

Key Topics:

  • Service decomposition
  • Inter-service communication
  • Service discovery
  • API design
  • Data management

🌐 Frontend System Design

System design principles for frontend applications.

Getting Started

For Interview Preparation

  1. Start with the Interview Guide
  2. Review the Interview Process Framework
  3. Practice with Estimation Techniques
  4. Work through Practice Questions

For Learning System Design

  1. Understand Scalability Fundamentals
  2. Learn Caching Strategies
  3. Study Database Design
  4. Explore Security Best Practices
  5. Review Real-world Case Studies

For Building Systems

  1. Review Architecture Patterns
  2. Implement Security Best Practices
  3. Apply Scalability Patterns
  4. Set up Monitoring

System Design Process

graph TD
    A[Requirements Gathering] --> B[Functional Requirements]
    A --> C[Non-Functional Requirements]
    B --> D[API Design]
    C --> E[Scale Estimation]
    E --> F[High-Level Design]
    F --> G[Component Design]
    G --> H[Database Design]
    G --> I[Caching Strategy]
    G --> J[Load Balancing]
    H --> K[Deep Dive]
    I --> K
    J --> K
    K --> L[Trade-offs & Bottlenecks]
    L --> M[Final Design]
Loading

System Design Roadmap

%%{init: {'theme':'base', 'themeVariables': { 'fontSize':'18px', 'fontFamily':'arial'}}}%%
graph TD
    Start([START YOUR JOURNEY]) --> Phase1[PHASE 1: FOUNDATIONS<br/><b>Weeks 1-2</b>]

    Phase1 --> Week1{<b>WEEK 1</b>}
    Week1 --> Arch[<b>Architecture Patterns</b><br/>Monolithic, Microservices,<br/>Event-Driven, CQRS]
    Week1 --> DB1[<b>Database Basics</b><br/>SQL vs NoSQL<br/>CAP Theorem]

    Arch --> Week2{<b>WEEK 2</b>}
    DB1 --> Week2
    Week2 --> API[<b>API Gateways</b><br/>Routing, Rate Limiting,<br/>Auth/AuthZ]
    Week2 --> Cache1[<b>Caching Fundamentals</b><br/>Strategies, Invalidation,<br/>CDN]

    API --> Phase2[PHASE 2: SCALING<br/><b>Weeks 3-4</b>]
    Cache1 --> Phase2

    Phase2 --> Week3{<b>WEEK 3</b>}
    Week3 --> Service[<b>Service Design</b><br/>Decomposition<br/>Communication<br/>Discovery]
    Week3 --> Patterns[<b>Design Patterns</b><br/>Circuit Breaker<br/>Saga Pattern]

    Service --> Week4{<b>WEEK 4</b>}
    Patterns --> Week4
    Week4 --> HV[<b>Horizontal vs<br/>Vertical Scaling</b>]
    Week4 --> LB[<b>Load Balancing</b><br/>Replication<br/>Sharding]

    HV --> Phase3[PHASE 3: OPERATIONS<br/><b>Weeks 5-6</b>]
    LB --> Phase3

    Phase3 --> Week5{<b>WEEK 5</b>}
    Week5 --> Cloud[<b>Cloud & Containers</b><br/>Docker, Kubernetes<br/>IaC]
    Week5 --> CICD[<b>CI/CD Pipelines</b><br/>Deployment Strategies<br/>Blue-Green, Canary]

    Cloud --> Week6{<b>WEEK 6</b>}
    CICD --> Week6
    Week6 --> Observe[<b>Observability</b><br/>Logging, Metrics<br/>Tracing, Alerting]
    Week6 --> Sec[<b>Security</b><br/>Auth, Encryption<br/>OWASP, DDoS]

    Observe --> Phase4[PHASE 4: REAL-WORLD<br/><b>Weeks 7-8</b>]
    Sec --> Phase4

    Phase4 --> Week7{<b>WEEK 7</b>}
    Week7 --> URL[<b>URL Shortener</b>]
    Week7 --> Social[<b>Social Media Feed</b>]
    Week7 --> Video[<b>Video Streaming</b>]

    URL --> Week8{<b>WEEK 8</b>}
    Social --> Week8
    Video --> Week8
    Week8 --> Ride[<b>Ride Sharing</b>]
    Week8 --> Chat[<b>Chat Application</b>]
    Week8 --> Ecomm[<b>E-commerce Platform</b>]

    Ride --> Phase5[PHASE 5: MASTERY<br/><b>Weeks 9-12</b>]
    Chat --> Phase5
    Ecomm --> Phase5

    Phase5 --> Week910{<b>WEEKS 9-10</b>}
    Week910 --> Frontend[<b>Frontend System Design</b><br/>State Management<br/>Performance]
    Week910 --> Questions[<b>Practice Problems</b><br/>Whiteboarding<br/>Time Management]

    Frontend --> Week1112{<b>WEEKS 11-12</b>}
    Questions --> Week1112
    Week1112 --> Self[<b>Self-Practice</b><br/>2-3 Designs/Week]
    Week1112 --> Peer[<b>Peer Review</b><br/>Feedback Loop]

    Self --> Master([SYSTEM DESIGN MASTER!])
    Peer --> Master
Loading

Key System Design Concepts

CAP Theorem

graph LR
    A[CAP Theorem] --> B[Consistency]
    A --> C[Availability]
    A --> D[Partition Tolerance]
    B -.Choose 2.-> C
    C -.Choose 2.-> D
    D -.Choose 2.-> B
Loading

Scalability Architecture

graph TB
    subgraph "Client Layer"
        A[Web Clients]
        B[Mobile Clients]
    end

    subgraph "Gateway Layer"
        C[Load Balancer]
        D[API Gateway]
    end

    subgraph "Application Layer"
        E[Service 1]
        F[Service 2]
        G[Service 3]
    end

    subgraph "Caching Layer"
        H[Redis/Memcached]
    end

    subgraph "Data Layer"
        I[Primary DB]
        J[Read Replicas]
        K[Message Queue]
    end

    A --> C
    B --> C
    C --> D
    D --> E
    D --> F
    D --> G
    E --> H
    F --> H
    G --> H
    E --> I
    F --> I
    G --> I
    I --> J
    E --> K
    F --> K
    G --> K
Loading

Common System Design Patterns

Load Balancing Strategies

  • Round Robin: Distribute requests evenly across servers
  • Least Connections: Route to server with fewest active connections
  • IP Hash: Route based on client IP for session persistence
  • Weighted Round Robin: Distribute based on server capacity

Caching Patterns

  • Cache-Aside: Application manages cache, load on cache miss
  • Write-Through: Write to cache and database simultaneously
  • Write-Back: Write to cache first, async write to database
  • Refresh-Ahead: Proactively refresh cache before expiration

Database Scaling Patterns

  • Replication: Master-slave for read scaling
  • Sharding: Horizontal partitioning for write scaling
  • Partitioning: Logical data separation
  • Federation: Splitting databases by function

Best Practices

General Principles

  1. Start Simple: Begin with the simplest solution that meets requirements
  2. Scale Gradually: Add complexity only when needed
  3. Measure Everything: Monitor and measure before optimizing
  4. Plan for Failure: Design for resilience and fault tolerance
  5. Security First: Build security into every layer

Design Checklist

  • Define clear functional requirements
  • Estimate scale (users, requests, data)
  • Identify bottlenecks
  • Plan for high availability
  • Implement security measures
  • Design for observability
  • Consider cost implications
  • Document trade-offs

Study Path

Week 1-2: Fundamentals

  • Scalability basics
  • Load balancing
  • Caching fundamentals
  • Database basics

Week 3-4: Advanced Topics

  • Microservices architecture
  • Message queues
  • Distributed systems
  • CAP theorem

Week 5-6: Security & Operations

  • Authentication/Authorization
  • Encryption
  • Monitoring
  • Incident response

Week 7-8: Practice

  • Work through case studies
  • Practice interview questions
  • Design systems end-to-end
  • Review trade-offs

Resources

Internal Documentation

Case Studies

Explore real-world examples in the case-studies directory and security case studies.

🎥 Recommended Tutorials

Tutorial 1 Tutorial 2
Video 1 Video 2
Tutorial 3 Tutorial 4
Video 3 Video 4

👉 Click any banner to watch the video.

System Design Study Guide

A comprehensive roadmap to master the contents of this system design repository.

📚 Study Plan Overview

This guide is structured to take you from fundamentals to advanced concepts over 8-12 weeks, with flexibility for your pace.

Phase 1: Foundations (Weeks 1-2)

Week 1: Core Concepts

Goal: Understand basic building blocks of distributed systems

  1. Start with README.md

    • Understand the repository structure
    • Get familiar with the learning objectives

  2. Architecture Patterns (architecture-patterns/)

    • Monolithic vs Microservices
    • Layered Architecture
    • Event-Driven Architecture
    • CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation)
    • Hexagonal Architecture

    Practice: Draw diagrams for each pattern, identify use cases

  3. Databases (databases/)

    • SQL vs NoSQL fundamentals
    • CAP theorem
    • Database indexing
    • Sharding and partitioning strategies

    Practice: Design a simple database schema for a blog application

Week 2: Communication & Storage

  1. API Gateways (api-gateways/)

    • API Gateway patterns
    • Rate limiting
    • Authentication/Authorization
    • Request routing

  2. Caching (caching/)

    • Cache strategies (LRU, LFU, TTL)
    • Cache invalidation
    • CDN concepts
    • Redis and Memcached

    Practice: Design a caching strategy for a social media feed

Phase 2: Scaling & Distribution (Weeks 3-4)

Week 3: Microservices Deep Dive

Goal: Master distributed system communication

  1. Microservices (microservices/)

    • Service decomposition
    • Inter-service communication (REST, gRPC, Message queues)
    • Service discovery
    • Circuit breaker pattern
    • Saga pattern for distributed transactions

    Practice: Break down a monolithic e-commerce app into microservices

Week 4: Scalability Techniques

  1. Scalability (scalability/)

    • Horizontal vs Vertical scaling
    • Load balancing strategies
    • Database replication
    • Read/Write splitting
    • Consistent hashing

    Practice: Design a scalability strategy for handling 10M+ users

Phase 3: Operations & Reliability (Weeks 5-6)

Week 5: Infrastructure & Deployment

  1. Infrastructure (infrastructure/)

    • Cloud computing concepts (AWS, GCP, Azure)
    • Containerization (Docker)
    • Orchestration (Kubernetes)
    • Infrastructure as Code

  2. DevOps & Deployment (devops-deployment/)

    • CI/CD pipelines
    • Blue-green deployments
    • Canary releases
    • Rolling updates

    Practice: Design a CI/CD pipeline for a microservices application

Week 6: Monitoring & Security

  1. Observability (observability/)

    • Logging strategies
    • Metrics and monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana)
    • Distributed tracing
    • Alerting best practices

  2. Security (security/)

    • Authentication mechanisms (OAuth, JWT)
    • Authorization (RBAC, ABAC)
    • Encryption (at rest, in transit)
    • Common vulnerabilities (OWASP Top 10)
    • DDoS protection

    Practice: Design a security architecture for a banking application

Phase 4: Real-World Applications (Weeks 7-8)

Week 7-8: Case Studies

Goal: Apply knowledge to real systems

  1. Case Studies (case-studies/)

    • Study each case thoroughly
    • Common systems to expect:
      • URL Shortener (like bit.ly)
      • Social Media Feed (like Twitter/Instagram)
      • Video Streaming (like YouTube/Netflix)
      • Ride-sharing (like Uber)
      • Chat Application (like WhatsApp)
      • E-commerce (like Amazon)

    For each case study:

    • Identify functional requirements
    • Define non-functional requirements
    • Calculate capacity estimates
    • Design high-level architecture
    • Detail each component
    • Discuss trade-offs

Phase 5: Interview Preparation (Weeks 9-12)

Week 9-10: Interview Practice

  1. Interviews (interviews/)
    • Review common interview questions
    • Practice whiteboarding
    • Time yourself (45-60 minutes per design)
  2. Frontend System Design (frontend_system_design_overview.md)
    • Client-side architecture
    • State management
    • Performance optimization
    • Progressive Web Apps

Week 11-12: Mock Interviews

  1. Self-Practice:
    • Design 2-3 systems per week from scratch
    • Record yourself explaining designs
    • Review and improve
  2. Peer Review:
    • Practice with friends or online communities
    • Get feedback on your designs
    • Discuss trade-offs

📋 Daily Study Routine

Recommended Schedule (2-3 hours/day)

Option 1: Deep Focus (2 hours)

  • 45 min: Read new topic
  • 45 min: Practice/hands-on
  • 30 min: Review and note-taking

Option 2: Balanced (3 hours)

  • 1 hour: Study new material
  • 1 hour: Practice design problems
  • 1 hour: Review previous topics + case studies

🎯 Key Principles to Remember

The Design Process

  1. Clarify Requirements (5 min)

    • Functional requirements
    • Non-functional requirements
    • Constraints and assumptions

  2. Back-of-Envelope Calculations (5 min)

    • Traffic estimates
    • Storage estimates
    • Bandwidth requirements

  3. High-Level Design (10-15 min)

    • Major components
    • Data flow
    • APIs

  4. Deep Dive (15-20 min)

    • Database schema
    • Scalability considerations
    • Trade-offs

  5. Wrap Up (5 min)

    • Bottlenecks
    • Monitoring
    • Future improvements

🛠️ Hands-On Projects

Build these to reinforce learning:

  1. Week 2: Simple REST API with caching
  2. Week 4: Microservices app with load balancer
  3. Week 6: Add monitoring and logging to existing project
  4. Week 8: Build a URL shortener end-to-end
  5. Week 10: Design and implement a rate limiter

📖 Additional Resources

Must-Read Books

  • "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" by Martin Kleppmann
  • "System Design Interview" by Alex Xu
  • "Building Microservices" by Sam Newman

Online Practice

  • LeetCode System Design
  • Pramp
  • interviewing.io
  • System Design Primer (GitHub)

YouTube Channels

  • Gaurav Sen
  • Tech Dummies Narendra L
  • ByteByteGo
  • Hussein Nasser

✅ Weekly Checkpoints

Track your progress:

  • Week 1: Can explain 5 architecture patterns
  • Week 2: Designed a caching strategy
  • Week 3: Broke down a monolith into microservices
  • Week 4: Calculated capacity for 10M users
  • Week 5: Designed a CI/CD pipeline
  • Week 6: Created security architecture
  • Week 7: Completed 3 case studies
  • Week 8: Completed 3 more case studies
  • Week 9: Practiced 5 interview questions
  • Week 10: Studied frontend system design
  • Week 11: Completed 5 mock interviews
  • Week 12: Can design any system confidently

💡 Pro Tips

  1. Don't memorize, understand: Focus on trade-offs and why decisions are made
  2. Think out loud: Practice explaining your thought process
  3. Draw diagrams: Visualize everything
  4. Ask questions: In interviews, clarify before designing
  5. Be pragmatic: No solution is perfect; discuss trade-offs
  6. Stay updated: Follow engineering blogs (Netflix, Uber, Airbnb)
  7. Build things: Theory + Practice = Mastery

🚀 Good Luck!

Remember: System design is a journey, not a destination. The goal isn't to memorize solutions but to develop the ability to think through problems systematically and make informed trade-offs.

Start today, stay consistent, and you'll master this!

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please follow these guidelines:

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch
  3. Add or update documentation
  4. Include diagrams where helpful
  5. Submit a pull request

Documentation Standards

  • Use clear, concise language
  • Include code examples where applicable
  • Add Mermaid diagrams for visual clarity
  • Reference related documents
  • Keep content up-to-date

License

See LICENSE file for details.

Quick Reference

Common Commands

# Navigate to specific topic
cd api-gateways/
cd caching/
cd scalability/
cd security/

# View documentation
cd docs/
ls

Key Metrics to Consider

  • Latency: Response time (p50, p95, p99)
  • Throughput: Requests per second
  • Availability: Uptime percentage (99.9%, 99.99%)
  • Consistency: Data consistency guarantees
  • Durability: Data loss prevention

Scale Estimation Quick Reference

  • 1 million users ≈ 10-100 requests/second
  • 1 billion users ≈ 10,000-100,000 requests/second
  • 1 TB data ≈ 1-10 database servers
  • 1 PB data ≈ distributed storage required

Start your system design journey today! 🚀

For questions or suggestions, please open an issue or contribute to the repository.

About

A comprehensive, structured, and practical knowledge base for mastering system design concepts, microservices, and real-world architectures with tutorials, patterns, and case studies for frontend, backend, and distributed systems.

Topics

infrastructure caching security distributed-systems microservices api-gateway scalability databases observability interview-preparation system-design architecture-patterns

Resources

Readme

License

MIT license
Activity

Stars

8 stars

Watchers

1 watching

Forks

1 fork
Report repository

Releases

No releases published

Packages

No packages published