Welcome to the System Design GitBook - your complete resource for mastering system design concepts and excelling in system design interviews. This book is designed to take you from fundamental concepts to advanced system design patterns, with practical examples and real-world interview problems.
- Beginner SDEs looking to learn system design fundamentals
- Interview candidates preparing for system design interviews at top tech companies
- Experienced engineers seeking to deepen their understanding of distributed systems
- Anyone interested in building scalable, reliable systems
This book covers everything you need to know about system design:
- Computing networks and protocols (TCP/IP, HTTP, DNS)
- Distributed systems concepts (CAP theorem, consistency models)
- Data consistency and transactions (ACID, BASE, consensus algorithms)
- Scaling strategies (horizontal vs vertical, sharding, partitioning)
- Architecture patterns (monolithic, microservices, event-driven)
- Performance, reliability, and security fundamentals
- Database systems (SQL, NoSQL, scaling strategies)
- Caching strategies and technologies
- Load balancing and traffic management
- Message queues and communication patterns
- API design and protocols
- Search and indexing systems
- File storage and content delivery
- Monitoring, logging, and observability
- System design interview framework and methodology
- 20+ real-world system design problems with detailed solutions:
- Social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok)
- Communication systems (WhatsApp, Slack, Zoom)
- Media platforms (YouTube, Netflix, Spotify)
- E-commerce systems (Amazon, PayPal)
- Search engines and recommendation systems
- Real-time and location-based systems (Uber, DoorDash)
- Infrastructure systems (URL shortener, rate limiter)
- Advanced distributed systems concepts
- Security and privacy at scale
- Performance optimization techniques
- DevOps and deployment strategies
- Interview preparation and communication strategies
This book is designed for flexible learning:
Start with Part I and progress sequentially through the fundamentals before moving to advanced topics and interview problems.
Jump directly to specific topics using the comprehensive search and cross-reference system. Each chapter is self-contained with links to prerequisite concepts.
Focus on Part III for interview problems, but ensure you're familiar with the fundamentals covered in Parts I and II.
- Interactive Diagrams: Mermaid diagrams and visual architecture representations
- Code Examples: Syntax-highlighted code snippets with copy functionality
- Exercises & Quizzes: Practice problems with detailed explanations
- Capacity Calculators: Interactive tools for system sizing and estimation
- Cross-References: Intelligent linking between related concepts
- Progress Tracking: Monitor your learning journey
- Mobile-Optimized: Read anywhere, on any device
- Basic programming knowledge (any language)
- Understanding of fundamental data structures and algorithms
- Familiarity with databases and web development concepts
- No prior system design experience required!
- New to System Design? Start with Chapter 1: Introduction to System Design
- Preparing for Interviews? Begin with Chapter 17: System Design Interview Framework
- Looking for Specific Topics? Use the search functionality or browse the Table of Contents
This book is open source and welcomes contributions! Whether you want to:
- Fix typos or improve explanations
- Add new interview problems
- Update technology references
- Improve diagrams and examples
Please see our Contributing Guidelines for more information.
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Special thanks to the system design community, interview experiences shared by engineers at top tech companies, and the open-source tools that make this book possible.
Ready to master system design? Let's begin your journey! 🚀