Complete Roadmap to Learn System Design for Beginners

What is System Design?

System design is a critical aspect of software engineering that involves designing the architecture and infrastructure of systems to meet functional and non-functional requirements. Whether you're building a small application or architecting a large-scale distributed system, understanding system design principles is essential for scalability, reliability, and performance.

Why Learn System Design?

1. Problem Solving: System design teaches you how to approach and solve complex engineering challenges.
2. Scalability: Helps in creating systems that can handle growing amounts of data and users.
3. Career Growth: Many technical interviews for senior engineering roles focus heavily on system design.
4. Practical Application: Enables you to design systems that are robust, maintainable, and efficient.

What You'll Learn

In this roadmap, you'll explore:

• Fundamentals: Basic concepts like scalability, availability, and consistency.
• Key Components: Load balancers, databases, caching, and message queues.
• System Design Patterns: Architectural patterns like microservices, monoliths, and event-driven systems.
• Practical Examples: Real-world system design problems and solutions.

Who Is This For?

This roadmap is suitable for:

• Software engineers preparing for interviews.
• Professionals looking to strengthen their understanding of system design.
• Students aiming to build scalable and robust projects.

Ready to dive in? Let's begin your journey into system design!

1. Fundamentals of System Design

1.1 Scalability

• Definition: The ability of a system to handle increased load without performance degradation.
• Subtopics:
  • Vertical Scaling (Scaling Up)
  • Horizontal Scaling (Scaling Out)
  • Load Balancing

1.2 Reliability

• Definition: The ability of a system to function correctly even in the presence of failures.
• Subtopics:
  • Fault Tolerance
  • Redundancy
  • Data Replication

1.3 Maintainability

• Definition: The ease with which a system can be updated or repaired.
• Subtopics:
  • Modular Design
  • Clean Code Principles
  • CI/CD Pipelines

2. High-Level Design

2.1 Architectural Patterns

• Definition: Blueprint for system structure and interactions.
• Subtopics:
  • Monolithic Architecture
  • Microservices
  • Event-Driven Architecture

2.2 Communication

• Definition: How components interact with each other.
• Subtopics:
  • Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Communication
  • REST APIs vs. gRPC
  • WebSockets

3. Low-Level Design

3.1 Object-Oriented Design

• Definition: Designing systems using objects and their interactions.
• Subtopics:
  • SOLID Principles
  • Design Patterns (Singleton, Factory, Observer, etc.)

3.2 Database Design

• Definition: Structuring and optimizing data storage.
• Subtopics:
  • Normalization
  • Indexing
  • Entity-Relationship (ER) Modeling

4. Distributed Systems

4.1 Distributed System Basics

• Definition: A system where components are distributed across multiple machines.
• Subtopics:
  • CAP Theorem
  • Consistency Models
  • Distributed Consensus (Paxos, Raft)

4.2 Load Balancing

• Definition: Distributing traffic across multiple servers.
• Subtopics:
  • DNS Load Balancing
  • Application Layer (Layer 7) vs. Network Layer (Layer 4)

4.3 Caching

• Definition: Storing frequently accessed data for faster retrieval.
• Subtopics:
  • Cache Eviction Policies (LRU, LFU)
  • Distributed Caching (Redis, Memcached)

4.4 Message Queues

• Definition: Enabling asynchronous communication between components.
• Subtopics:
  • Kafka
  • RabbitMQ
  • SQS

5. Security

5.1 Authentication and Authorization

• Definition: Verifying users and their permissions.
• Subtopics:
  • OAuth 2.0
  • JWT (JSON Web Tokens)
  • SSO (Single Sign-On)

6. DevOps Concepts

6.1 CI/CD Pipelines

• Definition: Automating the deployment process.
• Subtopics:
  • Continuous Integration
  • Continuous Deployment

6.2 Monitoring and Logging

• Definition: Observing and tracking the health of a system.
• Subtopics:
  • Tools: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack

7. System Design Tradeoffs

7.1 Consistency vs. Availability

• Definition: Balancing consistency and uptime in a distributed system.
• Subtopics:
  • CAP Theorem
  • Strong vs. Eventual Consistency

7.2 Tradeoffs in Design Decisions

• Definition: Evaluating tradeoffs in system design choices.
• Subtopics:
  • Latency vs. Throughput
  • Cost vs. Performance
  • Complexity vs. Simplicity

8. Practice Problems and Case Studies

Practice Problems:

• Design a URL Shortener (e.g., TinyURL)
• Design an E-commerce Platform
• Design a Messaging Service (e.g., WhatsApp)
• Design a Distributed Caching System (e.g., Memcached or Redis)
• Design a Social Media News Feed (e.g., Facebook or Twitter)
• Design a Ride-Sharing System (e.g., Uber or Lyft)
• Design a Video Streaming Service (e.g., YouTube or Netflix)
• Design a File Storage Service (e.g., Dropbox or Google Drive)
• Design a Notification System (e.g., Push Notifications or Email Alerts)

Resources:

• YouTube Playlists:

  • System Design Case Studies by Gaurav Sen
  • System Design Primer by CodeKarle
  • System Design for Beginners by Tech Dummies

• Books:

  • Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann
  • System Design Interview by Alex Xu
  • The Art of Scalability by Martin L. Abbott and Michael T. Fisher

• GitHub Repositories:

  • System Design Primer (GitHub)
  • Awesome System Design Resources
  • System Design
  • Grokking System Design Interview
  • System Design Interview Questions
  • Low level Design
  • Byte Sized System Design Concepts

• Courses:

  • Grokking the System Design Interview by Educative
  • Udemy: System Design Bootcamp

• Practice Platforms:

  • Exercism.io
  • InterviewBit System Design
  • LeetCode

Feel free to dive into these resources and practice problems to strengthen your understanding of system design concepts!

System Design Interview Questions

Basic Concepts

1. What is system design? Why is it important?
2. Explain the CAP theorem.
3. What is sharding? When would you use it?
4. What is replication, and how does it differ from sharding?
5. Explain caching. How do you decide what to cache?
6. What are the differences between a monolithic architecture and a microservices architecture?
7. What is eventual consistency, and where is it used?
8. What is a load balancer, and how does it work?
9. What are the differences between SQL and NoSQL databases? When would you use each?
10. What are the common bottlenecks in system design, and how can you mitigate them?
11. What is a CDN (Content Delivery Network) and how does it work?

High-Level System Design Questions

1. Design a URL shortening service (e.g., TinyURL).
2. Design an e-commerce platform like Amazon.
3. Design a video streaming platform like YouTube.
4. Design a social media platform like Facebook or Twitter.
5. Design a ride-hailing service like Uber or Lyft.
6. Design a search engine like Google.
7. Design a messaging service like WhatsApp or Slack.
8. Design a news feed system like the one on Facebook.
9. Design a real-time chat application.
10. Design a scalable notification system.
11. Design a file storage and sharing system like Google Drive or Dropbox.
12. Design an online booking system like OpenTable.
13. Design a distributed task scheduling system.
14. Design a rate limiter.
15. Design an online multiplayer game system.
16. Design a system for tracking geolocation data.
17. Design a logging and monitoring system.
18. Design a payment processing system.
19. Design a URL analytics service.
20. Design an API rate-limiting system.
21. Design a subscription-based service platform (e.g., Netflix).
22. Design a content recommendation system.
23. Design a time-series data processing system.

Database Design Questions

1. How would you design the schema for a messaging app?
2. How would you design a database for a multi-tenant system?
3. How would you handle schema migrations in a live system?
4. How would you design a system to track user preferences?
5. How would you design a time-series database?
6. How would you manage database partitioning in a high-scale environment?
7. How would you ensure data integrity in a distributed database?

Scalability and Performance

1. How would you design a system to handle millions of users?
2. How would you ensure the high availability of a system?
3. What is a CDN? How would you integrate it into a system?
4. How would you handle a massive traffic spike (e.g., a flash sale)?
5. What is the role of message queues in system design?
6. How would you scale a database?
7. What strategies would you use to reduce latency in a system?
8. How would you design a system for horizontal scaling?
9. How do you implement and manage a caching layer?
10. What are the trade-offs between vertical and horizontal scaling?

Real-Time Systems

1. Design a real-time collaborative document editing system.
2. Design a stock trading platform.
3. Design a real-time bidding system for online ads.
4. Design a system for real-time video conferencing.
5. Design a system to stream real-time sports scores.
6. Design a live polling/voting system.
7. How would you design a real-time chat notification system?
8. Design a system for real-time event tracking.

Security and Privacy

1. How would you design a secure authentication system?
2. How would you handle data encryption in a system?
3. How would you design a system to prevent DDoS attacks?
4. How would you manage sensitive data in a distributed system?
5. What is OAuth, and how would you integrate it into a system?
6. How would you ensure GDPR compliance in your design?
7. What steps would you take to secure API endpoints in your system?
8. How would you design for role-based access control in your system?

Advanced Questions

1. How would you design a distributed file system?
2. How would you design a recommendation system like Netflix?
3. How would you design a system to track user activity logs at scale?
4. How would you design a fraud detection system?
5. How would you design a system for distributed transactions?
6. How would you design a content delivery network (CDN)?
7. How would you design a search autocomplete feature?
8. How would you design a feature flag management system?
9. How would you design a system to process streaming data (e.g., Apache Kafka)?
10. How would you design a high-frequency trading platform?

Trade-offs and Decision Making

1. How do you decide between consistency and availability in a system?
2. How would you decide between a monolithic and a microservices architecture for a given use case?
3. What factors would influence your decision to use SQL vs. NoSQL?
4. How do you balance cost vs. performance in system design?
5. How would you design for scalability while keeping initial costs low?
6. What trade-offs would you consider when choosing between synchronous and asynchronous processing?
7. How do you make decisions when faced with conflicting stakeholder priorities in a system design?

Behavioral Questions in System Design

1. Walk me through how you would approach designing a new system from scratch.
2. Can you describe a challenging system design you worked on and how you approached it?
3. How do you handle trade-offs in system design decisions?
4. How do you evaluate the success of a system design after implementation?
5. How do you prioritize features when designing a system?
6. Tell me about a time when you had to design a system with limited resources. How did you manage the constraints?
7. How do you handle feedback on your system design from non-technical stakeholders?
8. How do you ensure that your design is maintainable and easy to scale in the future?
9. How do you handle situations where there are conflicting requirements from different teams or departments?
10. Have you ever had to deal with a system failure or downtime? How did you approach resolving the issue?
11. How do you keep up with emerging technologies and trends in system design?
12. Describe a time when your initial design failed to meet the expectations. How did you handle it?
13. How do you ensure that your design is secure and compliant with industry standards?
14. How do you balance the need for speed of development with the quality of the system in your design?
15. Tell me about a time when you had to explain a complex system design to someone with no technical background.

Scenario-Based Questions

1. How would you redesign an existing legacy system for scalability?
2. What changes would you make to a system to handle a global user base?
3. How would you design a system for multi-region data replication?
4. How would you ensure data integrity in a distributed system?
5. How would you handle a scenario where parts of your system are frequently failing?
6. How would you address database schema changes in a production environment?
7. Imagine you’re designing a system with high throughput requirements. How would you ensure performance under heavy load?
8. If your application suddenly experiences a massive increase in user traffic due to a viral event, how would you ensure it doesn’t break?
9. How would you design a system that needs to process data in real time, while also ensuring that it’s fault-tolerant and scalable?
10. If you were tasked with creating a system that supports multiple versions of an API, how would you design the versioning mechanism?
11. How would you design a system where data from multiple external sources needs to be aggregated and processed quickly?
12. Imagine you are designing a mobile application that needs to work offline. How would you design its synchronization mechanism when the user goes online?
13. If your team is facing a strict deadline but the initial design is flawed, how would you handle the situation to meet the deadline while ensuring some level of quality?
14. How would you design a system that requires a significant amount of user data but ensures privacy and compliance with data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR)?
15. If a client demands a system with 99.999% uptime, but your infrastructure can only guarantee 99.99%, how would you handle the situation?

DSA Complete Roadmap with Resources

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