System Design Mastery
@amitmund
July 09, 2026
System Design Mastery
The Complete Beginner to Advanced Guide to System Design, Software Architecture, Distributed Systems, Scalability, High Availability, Cloud-Native Applications, Enterprise Architecture, and Production Engineering
Course Goal
This course is designed to take you from absolute beginner to Staff Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Backend Engineer, Solutions Architect, Platform Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), or System Architect.
By the end of this learning track, you will be able to:
- Master System Design Fundamentals
- Design Highly Scalable Systems
- Understand Distributed Systems
- Design Microservices Architecture
- Build Cloud-Native Applications
- Design High Availability Systems
- Build Event-Driven Architectures
- Optimize Large-Scale Applications
- Design Enterprise Infrastructure
- Crack FAANG System Design Interviews
Prerequisites
- Linux Fundamentals
- Networking Fundamentals
- Git & GitHub
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Database Fundamentals
- Basic Programming
- Cloud Fundamentals
Course Structure
Module 1 — System Design Fundamentals
Chapter 1 — Introduction to System Design
- Learning Objectives
- What is System Design?
- Why Learn System Design?
- System Design Process
- Functional Requirements
- Non-Functional Requirements
- Scalability Basics
- Availability
- Reliability
- Maintainability
Chapter 2 — System Architecture Basics
- Monolith
- Client-Server
- Three-Tier Architecture
- N-Tier Architecture
- Service-Oriented Architecture
- Event Driven Architecture
- Microservices
- Serverless
Chapter 3 — How Large Systems Work
- Request Lifecycle
- Browser
- DNS
- CDN
- Reverse Proxy
- Load Balancer
- Web Server
- Application Server
- Database
- Cache
Chapter 4 — Design Methodology
- Requirement Gathering
- Capacity Estimation
- API Design
- Database Design
- High-Level Design
- Low-Level Design
- Bottleneck Analysis
- Scaling Strategy
Chapter 5 — Capacity Planning
- Estimating Users
- Storage Calculation
- Memory Calculation
- Bandwidth
- QPS
- Throughput
- Latency
- Cost Estimation
Module 2 — Networking
Chapter 6 — OSI Model
Chapter 7 — TCP/IP
Chapter 8 — HTTP/HTTPS
Chapter 9 — DNS
Chapter 10 — CDN
Chapter 11 — Proxy
Chapter 12 — Reverse Proxy
Chapter 13 — VPN
Chapter 14 — NAT
Chapter 15 — WebSockets
Module 3 — Databases
Chapter 16 — SQL Databases
Chapter 17 — NoSQL Databases
Chapter 18 — CAP Theorem
Chapter 19 — ACID
Chapter 20 — BASE
Chapter 21 — Sharding
Chapter 22 — Replication
Chapter 23 — Partitioning
Chapter 24 — Database Indexing
Chapter 25 — Database Scaling
Module 4 — Caching
Chapter 26 — Cache Fundamentals
Chapter 27 — Redis
Chapter 28 — Memcached
Chapter 29 — Cache Invalidation
Chapter 30 — Cache Eviction Policies
Chapter 31 — Distributed Cache
Chapter 32 — CDN Caching
Module 5 — Messaging Systems
Chapter 33 — Message Queues
Chapter 34 — RabbitMQ
Chapter 35 — Apache Kafka
Chapter 36 — Amazon SQS
Chapter 37 — Apache Pulsar
Chapter 38 — Event Streaming
Chapter 39 — Pub/Sub
Chapter 40 — Event Sourcing
Module 6 — Distributed Systems
Chapter 41 — Distributed Computing
Chapter 42 — Consistency
Chapter 43 — Consensus
Chapter 44 — Raft
Chapter 45 — Paxos
Chapter 46 — Leader Election
Chapter 47 — Distributed Locks
Chapter 48 — Service Discovery
Module 7 — Scalability
Chapter 49 — Horizontal Scaling
Chapter 50 — Vertical Scaling
Chapter 51 — Stateless Services
Chapter 52 — Stateful Services
Chapter 53 — Auto Scaling
Chapter 54 — Elasticity
Chapter 55 — Load Distribution
Module 8 — Load Balancing
Chapter 56 — Layer 4 Load Balancer
Chapter 57 — Layer 7 Load Balancer
Chapter 58 — NGINX
Chapter 59 — HAProxy
Chapter 60 — Envoy
Chapter 61 — Service Mesh
Module 9 — Storage Systems
Chapter 62 — Object Storage
Chapter 63 — Block Storage
Chapter 64 — File Storage
Chapter 65 — Distributed File Systems
Chapter 66 — Data Lake
Chapter 67 — Data Warehouse
Module 10 — Security
Chapter 68 — Authentication
Chapter 69 — Authorization
Chapter 70 — OAuth
Chapter 71 — OpenID Connect
Chapter 72 — JWT
Chapter 73 — TLS
Chapter 74 — API Security
Chapter 75 — Secrets Management
Module 11 — Cloud Architecture
Chapter 76 — AWS Architecture
Chapter 77 — Azure Architecture
Chapter 78 — Google Cloud
Chapter 79 — Kubernetes
Chapter 80 — Docker
Chapter 81 — Serverless
Chapter 82 — Multi-Cloud
Module 12 — Observability
Chapter 83 — Monitoring
Chapter 84 — Logging
Chapter 85 — Tracing
Chapter 86 — Prometheus
Chapter 87 — Grafana
Chapter 88 — Loki
Chapter 89 — OpenTelemetry
Module 13 — Reliability Engineering
Chapter 90 — High Availability
Chapter 91 — Disaster Recovery
Chapter 92 — Failover
Chapter 93 — Backup
Chapter 94 — Circuit Breaker
Chapter 95 — Retry
Chapter 96 — Rate Limiting
Chapter 97 — Bulkhead Pattern
Module 14 — Design Patterns
Chapter 98 — CQRS
Chapter 99 — Saga Pattern
Chapter 100 — Event Sourcing
Chapter 101 — Sidecar Pattern
Chapter 102 — API Gateway
Chapter 103 — Backend for Frontend (BFF)
Chapter 104 — Strangler Pattern
Chapter 105 — Database per Service
Chapter 106 — Outbox Pattern
Module 15 — Real World System Design
Chapter 107 — URL Shortener
Chapter 108 — Pastebin
Chapter 109 — TinyURL
Chapter 110 — Dropbox
Chapter 111 — Google Drive
Chapter 112 — WhatsApp
Chapter 113 — Facebook News Feed
Chapter 114 — Instagram
Chapter 115 — Twitter/X
Chapter 116 — YouTube
Chapter 117 — Netflix
Chapter 118 — Uber
Chapter 119 — Ola
Chapter 120 — PayPal
Chapter 121 — Razorpay
Chapter 122 — Amazon
Chapter 123 — Flipkart
Chapter 124 — Swiggy
Chapter 125 — Zomato
Chapter 126 — Google Maps
Chapter 127 — Zoom
Chapter 128 — Slack
Chapter 129 — Discord
Chapter 130 — Gmail
Chapter 131 — Kubernetes Control Plane
Chapter 132 — GitHub
Module 16 — Enterprise Architecture
Chapter 133 — Domain Driven Design
Chapter 134 — Hexagonal Architecture
Chapter 135 — Clean Architecture
Chapter 136 — Onion Architecture
Chapter 137 — Enterprise Integration Patterns
Chapter 138 — API Gateway Pattern
Chapter 139 — Event Driven Systems
Chapter 140 — Multi-Tenant Architecture
Chapter 141 — SaaS Design
Module 17 — DevOps & Infrastructure Design
Chapter 142 — CI/CD Architecture
Chapter 143 — GitOps
Chapter 144 — Infrastructure as Code
Chapter 145 — Kubernetes Platform Design
Chapter 146 — Service Mesh
Chapter 147 — Platform Engineering
Chapter 148 — SRE Principles
Module 18 — Interview Preparation
Chapter 149 — System Design Interviews
Chapter 150 — Requirement Analysis
Chapter 151 — Whiteboard Design
Chapter 152 — Scalability Questions
Chapter 153 — Database Questions
Chapter 154 — Networking Questions
Chapter 155 — Distributed Systems Questions
Chapter 156 — Mock Interviews
Module 19 — Advanced Topics
Chapter 157 — Multi Region Deployment
Chapter 158 — Multi Active Architecture
Chapter 159 — Geo Replication
Chapter 160 — Edge Computing
Chapter 161 — AI System Design
Chapter 162 — ML Infrastructure
Chapter 163 — Kubernetes at Scale
Chapter 164 — Planet Scale Systems
Module 20 — Bonus
Chapter 165 — Architecture Decision Records (ADR)
Chapter 166 — Engineering Documentation
Chapter 167 — Production Checklists
Chapter 168 — Design Review Checklist
Chapter 169 — Architecture Best Practices
Chapter 170 — Common Mistakes
Chapter 171 — Future of Distributed Systems
Every Chapter Includes
Every chapter follows the same professional learning structure:
- Learning Objectives
- Prerequisites
- Theory
- Internal Working
- Architecture Deep Dive
- Design Decisions
- Trade-offs
- Scalability Analysis
- Reliability Analysis
- Security Considerations
- Performance Optimization
- Cost Optimization
- Mermaid Diagrams
- ASCII Diagrams
- Sequence Diagrams
- Flowcharts
- Architecture Diagrams
- API Design
- Database Design
- Deployment Architecture
- Docker Examples
- Kubernetes Examples
- Terraform Examples
- AWS Examples
- Azure Examples
- GCP Examples
- Production Examples
- Enterprise Case Studies
- Best Practices
- Anti-Patterns
- Common Mistakes
- Troubleshooting Guide
- Security Notes
- High Availability Design
- Disaster Recovery Planning
- Capacity Planning
- Hands-on Labs
- Home Lab Exercises
- Mini Projects
- Capstone Projects
- Design Challenges
- Quiz
- Interview Questions
- FAANG Interview Problems
- Cheat Sheet
- Summary
- References
- Further Reading
- Revision Notes
- Glossary
Hands-on Labs
- Design a URL Shortener
- Design a Chat Application
- Design an E-Commerce Platform
- Design a Video Streaming Platform
- Design a Payment Gateway
- Design a Notification Service
- Design a Distributed Cache
- Design a File Storage System
- Design a Logging Platform
- Design a Monitoring Platform
- Design a Search Engine
- Design a Recommendation Engine
- Design a Ride-Sharing Application
- Design a Social Media Platform
- Design an Enterprise Cloud Platform
Capstone Projects
- Netflix Architecture
- Amazon Architecture
- Google Drive Clone
- WhatsApp Backend
- Uber Backend
- Banking Platform
- Cloud Storage Platform
- Enterprise SaaS Platform
- Kubernetes Platform Design
- Global Multi-Region Enterprise Architecture
Technologies Covered
Networking
- HTTP/HTTPS
- TCP/IP
- DNS
- CDN
- Load Balancers
- Reverse Proxy
- VPN
- WebSocket
- gRPC
Databases
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- MongoDB
- Cassandra
- DynamoDB
- Redis
- Elasticsearch
- InfluxDB
Messaging
- Kafka
- RabbitMQ
- Pulsar
- ActiveMQ
- Amazon SQS
Cloud
- AWS
- Azure
- Google Cloud
DevOps
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Helm
- Terraform
- OpenTofu
- Ansible
- Jenkins
- GitHub Actions
Observability
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- Loki
- Tempo
- OpenTelemetry
- Jaeger
Security
- OAuth2
- JWT
- TLS
- Vault
- IAM
- RBAC
Interview Preparation
Covers interview preparation for:
- Amazon
- Microsoft
- Meta
- Netflix
- Uber
- Apple
- Stripe
- Airbnb
- Atlassian
- Oracle
- VMware
- Cisco
- Red Hat
Estimated Course Size
- 20 Modules
- 171 Chapters
- 7,000+ Pages
- 4,000+ Architecture Diagrams
- 2,500+ Code Examples
- 700+ Production Case Studies
- 500+ Hands-on Labs
- 150+ Real-World System Design Problems
- Complete FAANG Interview Preparation
Final Outcome
After completing this learning track, you will be able to:
- Design internet-scale systems from scratch
- Build highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and distributed architectures
- Understand networking, databases, caching, messaging, and cloud infrastructure at a deep level
- Design systems that balance scalability, availability, consistency, security, performance, and cost
- Architect cloud-native applications using Kubernetes, microservices, and event-driven patterns
- Confidently lead architecture discussions and technical design reviews
- Work as a Senior Software Engineer, Staff Engineer, Solutions Architect, Platform Engineer, DevOps Engineer, SRE, or Enterprise Architect
- Successfully clear System Design interviews at top technology companies (FAANG and beyond)