My Approach to System Designs - A Comprehensive Guide
Are you struggling with system design interviews? If yes, then to be honest you’re not
alone and with so many concepts to learn, it’s very easy to feel overwhelmed.
BUT here’s the good news, you don’t actually need to know everything to ace the
interview. In fact, 80% of system design interviews focus on just 20% of the topics
(I know, hard to believe).
My guide (which I am very proud of) zeroes in on those key areas, helping you focus
your efforts on what really matters. With a clear roadmap, you'll be better prepared and
increase your chances of success!
What’s inside?????
PART 1: 4-Step Roadmap (If you’re Interview Is in 15 Days)
No need to spend hours and hours studying without a clear plan! This 4-step roadmap
gives you a simple and structured way to learn system design in a short time. Even with
just 15 days, you’ll build a pretty strong foundation and prepare effectively for your
interview.
1. How to Approach a System Design Interview
2. 15 Fundamental System Design Concepts
3. 3-Step Framework for System Design Interviews
4. Real-World System Design Examples
PART 2: Understand System Design from Basics to Advanced
Learn system design step by step with clear explanations, real-world examples, and
code snippets. Whether you're just starting or already have experience, this guide will
help you build a strong understanding and boost your confidence.
System Design Topics Covered:
1. Introduction to System Design
a. What is system design?
b. How to approach system design?
c. How to know if your system is well-designed?
2. Scalability and Performance
3. Latency and Throughput
4. Architectural Patterns
5. Core System Design Principles
a. Availability and Availability Patterns
b. Replication
c. Consistency and Consistency Patterns
d. CAP Theorem
e. PACELC Theorem
6. Database and Storage
a. Relational Databases
b. Database Isolation Levels
c. Scaling Databases
d. Sharding and Partitioning
e. Non-Relational Databases
f. Choosing the Right Database
7. Caching
8. Asynchronous Processing
a. Message Queues (Kafka, RabbitMQ)
b. Message Streams and Kafka Essentials
9. Monolithic vs. Microservices Architecture
10. Event-Driven Architecture
11. API Gateway and Backend for Frontend (BFF)
12. REST, GraphQL, and gRPC
13. Long Polling, WebSockets, Server-Sent Events (SSE)
14. Design Patterns
15. Resiliency
a. Designing for Resiliency
b. Load Balancers
c. Circuit Breakers
d. Data Redundancy and Recovery
16. System Essentials
a. Essentials at Scale
b. Bloom Filters
c. Consistent Hashing
d. Client-Server and Communication Protocols
e. Blob Storage and S3
17. Networking and Communication
18. Real-World Architectures & Engineering Blogs
PART 3: Ultimate Cheat Sheet
This quick-reference cheat sheet I made covers the most important system design
concepts, making it easy to review key points right before your interview.
PART 4: 50 Detailed Q&A for LLD and HLD
50 carefully selected interview questions, covering both Low-Level Design (LLD)
and High-Level Design (HLD). Each question comes with:
✔ Clear explanations
✔ Diagrams for better understanding
✔ Real-world examples
✔ Practical insights to simplify complex topics