System Design Syllabus

Module 1: Introduction to System Design

 Overview of System Design
o Definition and importance of system design.
o Difference between system architecture and system design.
o Types of systems (e.g., monolithic, microservices, distributed).
 Key Principles
o Scalability
o Availability
o Reliability
o Maintainability
o Fault Tolerance
o Performance
Module 2: Requirements Gathering and Problem Understanding
 Types of Requirements
o Functional vs Non-functional requirements.
o Stakeholder analysis.
 System Design Process
o Understanding business requirements.
o Translating requirements into design.
o Constraints and trade-offs.
Module 3: High-Level System Design
 Defining System Components
o User Interface (UI).
o APIs and communication protocols.
o Databases and storage.
o Caching and indexing.
o Service layers.
 System Design Patterns
 o Layered architecture.
o Microservices architecture.
o Client-Server model.
o Event-driven architecture.
Module 4: Designing Scalable Systems
 Scalability Principles
o Horizontal vs Vertical scaling.
o Load balancing.
o Partitioning and sharding.
 Distributed Systems Concepts
o CAP Theorem (Consistency, Availability, Partition Tolerance).
o Consensus algorithms (e.g., Paxos, Raft).
o Eventual consistency vs strong consistency.
 Designing for High Throughput and Low Latency
o Queues and asynchronous processing.
o Caching strategies (Redis, Memcached).
o Rate limiting and throttling.
Module 5: Databases and Storage Design
 Types of Databases
o Relational Databases (SQL).
o NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra).
o NewSQL databases.
 Database Design Principles
o Normalization vs Denormalization.
o ACID vs BASE properties.
o Data replication and consistency models.
 Data Storage and Retrieval Strategies
o Indexing.
o Search and retrieval algorithms.
Module 6: API Design and Communication
 RESTful APIs
o REST principles and best practices.
o HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).
o Status codes and versioning.
 GraphQL and gRPC
o Differences between REST, GraphQL, and gRPC.
o Use cases and advantages of each.
 Messaging and Queues
o Synchronous vs Asynchronous communication.
o Message brokers (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ).
o Pub/Sub and message queuing patterns.
Module 7: Fault Tolerance and Reliability
 Designing for Reliability
o Redundancy and replication.
o Failover strategies.
o Circuit breakers and retries.
 Monitoring and Metrics
o Logging and monitoring systems.
o Metrics collection (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana).
o Error tracking (e.g., Sentry).
 Disaster Recovery
o Backup strategies.
o Data replication across regions.
o Fault detection and mitigation.
Module 8: Security and Privacy in System Design
 Security Fundamentals
o Authentication vs Authorization.
o Encryption (at rest and in transit).
 o Secure APIs and OAuth.
 Privacy Considerations
o GDPR and data privacy laws.
o Data anonymization.
o Secure data handling.
Module 9: Load Testing and Performance Optimization
 Load Testing Tools and Techniques
o Stress testing vs load testing.
o Tools (e.g., JMeter, Locust).
o Identifying bottlenecks.
 Optimizing System Performance
o Query optimization.
o Caching strategies.
o Content Delivery Networks (CDN).
Module 10: Real-World System Design Case Studies
 Case Study 1: URL Shortener
o Designing a URL shortening service (e.g., Bitly).
 Case Study 2: Social Media Platform
o Designing a social media platform (e.g., Facebook).
 Case Study 3: E-commerce System
o Designing an e-commerce platform (e.g., Amazon).
 Case Study 4: Real-time Chat Application
o Designing a real-time messaging app (e.g., WhatsApp).
Module 11: Advanced System Design Topics
 Distributed Data Stores
o Distributed key-value stores.
o CAP Theorem and trade-offs.
 Consensus Algorithms
o Paxos, Raft, and other consensus protocols.
  Serverless Architectures
o Pros and cons of serverless.
o Serverless platforms (AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions).
Module 12: Scaling Strategies
 Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
o How CDNs work.
o Use cases for CDNs.
 Data Sharding
o Horizontal vs vertical sharding.
o Sharding strategies and challenges.
Module 13: Mock System Design Interviews
 System Design Interview Best Practices
o Understanding the question.
o High-level design and trade-offs.
o Managing ambiguity.
o Communication during the design process.