System Design — resources

roadmap.sh: https://roadmap.sh/system-design

Books

  • Designing Data-Intensive Applications (Kleppmann) — the reference; storage, replication, consistency.
  • System Design Interview, Vol 1 & 2 (Alex Xu) — worked walkthroughs of common designs.
  • Understanding Distributed Systems (Vitillo) — concise, modern fundamentals.

Courses / practice

  • The System Design Primer — the open-source basis for this roadmap.
  • ByteByteGo — Alex Xu’s diagrams + newsletter.
  • Pick a design (URL shortener, chat, feed) and write the trade-offs before reading a solution.