System Design Roadmap
This roadmap provides a comprehensive guide to mastering system design. It covers fundamental concepts, advanced topics, and practical examples, along with free resources to help you learn.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to System Design
- Key Concepts in System Design
- Designing Scalable Systems
- Database Design
- Caching Strategies
- Load Balancing
- Microservices Architecture
- Distributed Systems
- Messaging Systems
- API Design
- Security in System Design
- Real-World System Design Examples
- Practice and Resources
1. Introduction to System Design
What is System Design?
System design is the process of defining the architecture, components, modules, interfaces, and data for a system to satisfy specified requirements.
Why is System Design Important?
- Ensures scalability, reliability, and performance.
- Helps in building robust and maintainable systems.
- Prepares you for technical interviews at top tech companies.
Free Resources:
- System Design Primer by Donne Martin
- Grokking the System Design Interview (Free trial available)
2. Key Concepts in System Design
Key Topics:
- Requirements Gathering: Functional and non-functional requirements.
- High-Level Design (HLD): Defining the overall system architecture.
- Low-Level Design (LLD): Detailed design of individual components.
- Trade-offs: Balancing between scalability, consistency, availability, and latency.
Free Resources:
3. Designing Scalable Systems
Key Topics:
- Horizontal vs Vertical Scaling: Adding more machines vs upgrading existing ones.
- Stateless vs Stateful Systems: Managing state in distributed systems.
- Partitioning and Sharding: Splitting data across multiple databases.
- Replication: Ensuring data availability and durability.
Free Resources:
4. Database Design
Key Topics:
- Relational Databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL.
- NoSQL Databases: MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB.
- Database Indexing: Improving query performance.
- ACID vs BASE: Consistency models in databases.
- Database Normalization: Reducing redundancy.
Free Resources:
5. Caching Strategies
Key Topics:
- Cache Types: In-memory (Redis, Memcached), CDN caching.
- Cache Eviction Policies: LRU, FIFO, LFU.
- Cache Invalidation: Ensuring data consistency.
- Write-Through vs Write-Back Caching.
Free Resources:
6. Load Balancing
Key Topics:
- Load Balancer Types: Hardware vs Software (NGINX, HAProxy).
- Algorithms: Round Robin, Least Connections, IP Hash.
- Session Persistence: Sticky sessions.
- Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB).
Free Resources:
7. Microservices Architecture
Key Topics:
- Monolithic vs Microservices: Pros and cons.
- Service Discovery: Consul, Eureka.
- API Gateway: Routing and authentication.
- Communication Protocols: REST, gRPC, GraphQL.
Free Resources:
8. Distributed Systems
Key Topics:
- CAP Theorem: Consistency, Availability, Partition Tolerance.
- Consensus Algorithms: Paxos, Raft.
- Distributed Storage: HDFS, Amazon S3.
- Distributed Messaging: Kafka, RabbitMQ.
Free Resources:
9. Messaging Systems
Key Topics:
- Message Queues: RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ.
- Pub-Sub Systems: Apache Kafka, Google Pub/Sub.
- Message Delivery Semantics: At-most-once, At-least-once, Exactly-once.
Free Resources:
10. API Design
Key Topics:
- RESTful APIs: Best practices.
- GraphQL: Query language for APIs.
- API Versioning: URI, Header, Query Parameter.
- Rate Limiting: Throttling API requests.
Free Resources:
11. Security in System Design
Key Topics:
- Authentication and Authorization: OAuth, JWT.
- Encryption: SSL/TLS, AES.
- Data Privacy: GDPR, CCPA.
- DDoS Protection: Rate limiting, CAPTCHA.
Free Resources:
12. Real-World System Design Examples
Key Examples:
- Design a URL Shortener (e.g., TinyURL).
- Design a Social Media Platform (e.g., Twitter).
- Design a Video Streaming Platform (e.g., Netflix).
- Design a Payment System (e.g., Stripe).
Free Resources:
13. Practice and Resources
Practice Platforms:
Free Books:
- Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann (Free PDF available online)
- System Design Interview by Alex Xu (Free sample chapters)
YouTube Channels:
Conclusion
Mastering system design requires a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Use this roadmap to guide your learning journey and leverage the free resources provided to build a strong foundation.
System Design Interview Questions
This document contains a curated list of system design interview questions categorized by difficulty and topic. Use these questions to practice and prepare for your system design interviews.
Table of Contents
- Beginner-Level Questions
- Intermediate-Level Questions
- Advanced-Level Questions
- Real-World System Design Questions
- Behavioral Questions for System Design Interviews
1. Beginner-Level Questions
These questions are designed to test your understanding of basic system design concepts.
Questions:
- What is the difference between horizontal and vertical scaling?
- Explain the CAP theorem and its implications in distributed systems.
- What is the purpose of a load balancer, and how does it work?
- Describe the difference between SQL and NoSQL databases.
- What is caching, and why is it important in system design?
- How does a CDN (Content Delivery Network) work?
- What is the difference between monolithic and microservices architecture?
- Explain the concept of sharding in databases.
- What is the role of an API Gateway in microservices?
- How do you ensure data consistency in a distributed system?
2. Intermediate-Level Questions
These questions require a deeper understanding of system design principles and trade-offs.
Questions:
- Design a URL shortening service like TinyURL.
- How would you design a rate-limiting system for an API?
- Design a notification system for a mobile app.
- Explain how you would design a distributed logging system.
- Design a system for handling file uploads and downloads (e.g., Google Drive).
- How would you design a chat application like WhatsApp?
- Design a recommendation system for an e-commerce platform.
- How would you implement a leaderboard for a multiplayer game?
- Design a system for real-time analytics (e.g., tracking website clicks).
- How would you design a distributed task scheduler?
3. Advanced-Level Questions
These questions test your ability to design complex, scalable, and fault-tolerant systems.
Questions:
- Design a global video streaming platform like Netflix.
- How would you design a social media platform like Twitter?
- Design a payment processing system like Stripe.
- How would you design a search engine like Google?
- Design a distributed file storage system like Dropbox.
- How would you design a ride-sharing service like Uber?
- Design a real-time collaborative document editing system like Google Docs.
- How would you design a distributed cache system like Redis?
- Design a system for handling stock market data in real-time.
- How would you design a distributed messaging system like Kafka?
4. Real-World System Design Questions
These questions are inspired by real-world systems and are commonly asked in interviews.
Questions:
- Design a system for handling spikes in traffic (e.g., during a product launch).
- How would you design a system for handling user authentication and authorization?
- Design a system for managing user sessions in a distributed environment.
- How would you design a system for handling large-scale data processing (e.g., MapReduce)?
- Design a system for handling real-time notifications for millions of users.
- How would you design a system for handling geolocation-based queries (e.g., nearby restaurants)?
- Design a system for handling version control (e.g., Git).
- How would you design a system for handling ad serving (e.g., Google Ads)?
- Design a system for handling real-time multiplayer game state synchronization.
- How would you design a system for handling distributed locks?
5. Behavioral Questions for System Design Interviews
These questions assess your problem-solving approach and communication skills during system design interviews.
Questions:
- Walk me through your thought process for designing a scalable system.
- How do you handle trade-offs between consistency, availability, and partition tolerance?
- Describe a time when you had to design a system under tight constraints.
- How do you prioritize features when designing a system?
- Explain how you would handle a system failure or outage.
- How do you ensure that your system design is maintainable and extensible?
- Describe a time when you had to optimize a system for performance.
- How do you approach designing systems for high availability?
- Explain how you would handle security concerns in your system design.
- How do you communicate your design decisions to non-technical stakeholders?
Conclusion
Use these questions to practice and refine your system design skills. Focus on understanding the trade-offs, scalability, and reliability aspects of each problem. Good luck with your interviews! 🚀