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System Design

System Design Fundamentals

Scalability, networking, APIs, databases, caching, load balancing, queues and CAP — the vocabulary and mental models you need before designing real systems.

Beginner
6 weeks
8 modules · 39 lessons
STACKSHADE / COURSE
System Design

System Design Fundamentals

LEARNER OUTCOMES

What you should be able to do

  • Speak fluently about scalability, latency and availability
  • Choose the right database, cache and communication style
  • Whiteboard small designs with a repeatable framework
  • Be ready for the Advanced course's distributed deep dives
TOPIC FORMAT

Every topic has two modes

Read — deep article with diagrams, artifacts and retrieval.

Present — focused deck with notes, pointer, timer and fullscreen.

Review — spaced review queue with due dates and recall ratings.

Focus — Pomodoro sessions, daily goals and a persistent scratchpad.

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Read → predict → inspect → retrieve. Your progress stays on this device.

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STUDY LOOP

Designed around learning, not scrolling

Each topic now has the full loop: article, visual explanation, artifact, retrieval and a recordable presentation.

Retrieval

Recall before revealing. The attempt is part of the learning action.

Spacing

Return at increasing intervals instead of rereading everything immediately.

Generation

Predict the next state or answer before seeing the worked version.

Dual coding

Pair compact prose with diagrams, traces, tables and motion.

Feynman

Teach the idea back in plain language to expose missing links.

Interleaving

Contrast nearby problem types so recognition becomes more useful.

CURRICULUM

Pick a topic

Vertical vs horizontal scaling
Video10 min
ReadDeck
Latency, throughput, bandwidth — with real numbers
Video12 min
ReadDeck
Interactive: numbers every engineer should know
Interactive10 min
ReadDeck
Availability, nines, and single points of failure
Video12 min
ReadDeck
Back-of-envelope estimation: QPS & storage
Read15 min
ReadDeck
FEYNMAN PROMPT

Explain latency vs throughput using a highway: speed of one car vs cars per hour.

ACTIVE RECALL
What do 'three nines' and 'five nines' allow per year?

99.9% ≈ 8.7 hours of downtime/year; 99.999% ≈ 5.3 minutes/year.

Why is horizontal scaling the default for web systems?

Commodity machines are cheap and failure-contained; vertical scaling hits hardware ceilings and keeps a single point of failure.

KEEP GOING

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