System Design Interview
Run the interview, pick the data layer, keep data correct, survive failure and lock it down, in the words a senior engineer uses.
Up next1.1 · Interview framework and the gaps found3 minWhat you'll learn
- Run a system design interview end to end: clarify, estimate, design, deep-dive and wrap up.
- Choose the right data store and scale it with caching, sharding and replication.
- Keep data correct under concurrency with queues, ordering, transactions, sagas and consensus.
- Survive load and failure with load balancing, rate limiting, observability and disaster recovery.
- Secure a system: sessions vs JWT, OAuth, authorization models and end-to-end encryption.
- Defend every trade-off with numbers and senior-level signals.
Learning roadmap
28 lessons · 6 quizzes1. Run the interview4 lessonsframework, numbers, questions
2. Design it end to end5 lessonsfull designs and API shape
3. Pick the data layer5 lessonswhich store, and how it scales
4. Keep data correct6 lessonsmessaging, consistency, transactions
- 4.1 Message queues and Kafka5 min
- 4.2 Batch vs stream processing5 min
- 4.3 Ordering, acks and delivery guarantees3 min
- 4.4 Transactions across services: 2PC, sagas, outbox, last-seat booking12 min
- 4.5 CAP, PACELC and consistency models7 min
- 4.6 Consensus, leader election and distributed locks8 min
- ?Quiz: Keep data correct10 questions