System Design: Systems that Scale & Evolve

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🧠 System Design Bootcamp: Architect Scalable and Reliable Systems


🧾 Course Description

System Design is a critical skill for backend engineers, full stack developers, and tech leads. In β€œSystem Design Bootcamp”, you’ll learn how to architect scalable, fault-tolerant, and high-performance systems that power real-world applications like YouTube, Uber, WhatsApp, or Netflix.

This course is structured around core design principles, component patterns, trade-offs, and interview-ready architectures. You’ll design end-to-end systems using tools like load balancers, databases, caching, queues, CDN, CAP theorem, and consistency models.

Perfect for engineers preparing for interviews or architects designing real production systems.


βœ… Key Benefits

  • 🧩 Design with Clarity β€” Break down complex problems into scalable components
  • 🌐 Real-World Readiness β€” Learn architectures behind well-known platforms
  • βš–οΈ Balance Trade-offs β€” Understand consistency, availability, and performance
  • πŸ—οΈ Deployable Patterns β€” Use queues, caching, replication, and sharding effectively
  • πŸ§ͺ Interview-Ready β€” Practice whiteboard sessions and system walkthroughs

🎯 Pre-requisites

  • Strong knowledge of data structures & algorithms
  • Working experience with web apps or backend systems
  • Familiarity with network basics, databases, and APIs
  • No prior experience with distributed systems required

πŸ“š Curriculum Breakdown

πŸ“˜ Module 1: Foundations of System Design

  • What is system design?
  • Types of systems: OLTP vs OLAP, synchronous vs async
  • Requirements gathering (functional & non-functional)

πŸ”§ Module 2: Core Building Blocks

  • Load balancers, reverse proxies
  • Databases (SQL vs NoSQL), sharding
  • Caching strategies (Redis, Memcached)
  • CDNs, rate limiting, API gateway

πŸ“Ά Module 3: Scaling Techniques

  • Vertical vs horizontal scaling
  • Database replication & partitioning
  • Consistent hashing and data distribution
  • Auto-scaling and stateless architecture

πŸ” Module 4: Communication and Coordination

  • REST vs gRPC vs message queues
  • Message brokers: Kafka, RabbitMQ
  • Event-driven architecture and pub-sub models

πŸ” Module 5: Reliability, Fault Tolerance, and Security

  • CAP theorem, eventual consistency
  • Failover, retries, circuit breakers
  • Authentication and authorization design
  • Data security and rate limiting

πŸ› οΈ Module 6: Monitoring and Maintenance

  • Observability: metrics, logs, tracing
  • Health checks and alerting
  • Blue-green and canary deployments

πŸ§ͺ Module 7: System Design Patterns

  • Microservices vs monolith vs SOA
  • CQRS, Saga pattern, database-per-service
  • API versioning and backward compatibility

🚦 Module 8: Case Studies & Final Projects

  • Design real-world systems like:
    • URL shortener (Bitly)
    • Ride-sharing service (Uber backend)
    • Chat system (WhatsApp)
    • Video streaming platform (YouTube/Netflix)
  • Present architecture + justify decisions

⏱️ Estimated Duration

Daily Study TimeEstimated DurationIdeal For
2 hours/day18–20 days (~3 weeks)Deep understanding with practice
4 hours/day9–10 days (~1.5 weeks)Balanced case studies and theory
6 hours/day5–6 days (bootcamp)Fast-track, intensive learners

πŸŽ“ Outcome

By the end of System Design Bootcamp, you will:

  • Design scalable and maintainable systems using real-world techniques
  • Explain your architectural decisions in interviews and discussions
  • Balance performance, consistency, and cost
  • Be ready for system design interviews, tech lead roles, or architect-level work

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