Comprehensive System Design Interview Curriculum: From Zero to Hero

1. Fundamentals of System Design (4 weeks)

1.1. Introduction to System Design

• What is system design?
• Importance in software engineering
• System design interview overview

1.2. Basic Principles and Concepts

• Modularity and abstraction
• Coupling and cohesion
• SOLID principles in system design

1.3. Trade-offs in System Design

• Performance vs. scalability
• Reliability vs. cost
• Consistency vs. availability

1.4. Non-Functional Requirements

• Scalability
• Reliability
• Availability
• Maintainability
• Extensibility

1.5. Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations

• Estimating system capacity
• Traffic estimates
• Storage estimates

1.6. Mini-Project

• Design and implement a simple key-value store in Go
• Implement basic CRUD operations
• Add simple persistence to disk

Exercises:

• Estimate the storage requirements for a social media platform with 1 million users
• Design a high-level architecture for a URL shortener service
• Implement a thread-safe in-memory cache with LRU eviction policy

2. Building Blocks of Distributed Systems (4 weeks)

2.1. Load Balancing

• Algorithms (Round Robin, Least Connections, etc.)
• Layer 4 vs. Layer 7 load balancing
• Consistent hashing

2.2. Caching

• Cache placement strategies
• Cache eviction policies
• Distributed caching (e.g., Redis)

2.3. Database Sharding

• Partitioning strategies
• Consistent hashing for sharding
• Handling hot spots

2.4. Message Queues

• Publish-subscribe model
• Task queues
• Kafka architecture

2.5. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

• Edge locations
• Caching strategies
• Dynamic content acceleration

Mini-Project:

• Implement a simple load balancer in Go
• Create a distributed cache using Redis

Exercises:

• Design a sharding scheme for a large-scale social media platform
• Implement a basic message queue system with pub-sub functionality
• Create a simulation of a CDN with edge caching

3. High-Level System Design (6 weeks)

3.1. Designing a URL Shortener

• API design
• Database schema
• Scaling considerations

3.2. Designing a Social Media Feed

• Data model
• Feed generation algorithms
• Caching strategies

3.3. Designing a File Sharing Service

• Chunking and de-duplication
• Metadata management
• Consistency models

3.4. Designing a Video Streaming Platform

• Encoding and transcoding
• Adaptive bitrate streaming
• Content delivery optimization

3.5. Designing a Ride-Sharing Service

• Geospatial indexing
• Real-time matching algorithms
• Surge pricing implementation

3.6. Designing a Distributed Key-Value Store

• Consistency models
• Replication strategies
• Failure handling and recovery

Mini-Project:

• Implement a basic URL shortener service
• Create a simplified social media feed API

Exercises:

• Design and prototype a basic recommendation system for a streaming service
• Implement a geospatial index for location-based queries
• Create a simple distributed consensus algorithm (e.g., Raft)

4. Low-Level System Design and Machine Coding (6 weeks)

4.1. Object-Oriented Design Principles

• SOLID principles in depth
• Design patterns (Creational, Structural, Behavioral)
• Anti-patterns and code smells

4.2. Concurrency Patterns

• Thread safety and synchronization
• Producer-consumer problem
• Reader-writer problem

4.3. Designing a Rate Limiter

• Token bucket algorithm
• Sliding window algorithm
• Distributed rate limiting

4.4. Designing a Job Scheduler

• Cron expression parsing
• Task prioritization
• Handling missed jobs

4.5. Implementing a Parking Lot System

• Object modeling
• Payment processing
• Capacity management

4.6. Building a In-Memory File System

• Directory structure
• File and folder operations
• Permissions and access control

Mini-Project:

• Implement a rate limiter with multiple algorithms
• Create a basic job scheduler with cron-like functionality

Exercises:

• Design and implement a thread-safe connection pool
• Create a simple pub-sub system with topic-based routing
• Implement a basic garbage collector for a toy programming language

5. Advanced Topics in System Design (8 weeks)

5.1. Microservices Architecture

• Service decomposition strategies
• Inter-service communication (REST, gRPC, Event-driven)
• API gateway and Backend for Frontend (BFF) pattern

5.2. Event-Driven Architecture

• Event sourcing
• CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation)
• Handling eventual consistency

5.3. Distributed Transactions

• Two-phase commit protocol
• Saga pattern
• Idempotency in distributed systems

5.4. Real-time Processing Systems

• Stream processing concepts
• Time windowing techniques
• Exactly-once processing semantics

5.5. Machine Learning System Design

• Feature engineering and selection
• Model serving architectures
• Online learning systems

5.6. Blockchain Systems

• Consensus mechanisms
• Smart contracts
• Scalability solutions (Layer 2, sharding)

5.7. IoT System Design

• Edge computing architectures
• MQTT and CoAP protocols
• Data ingestion and processing pipelines

5.8. Designing for Security and Privacy

• Authentication and authorization systems
• Encryption and key management
• GDPR and data protection considerations

Mini-Project:

• Design and implement a microservices-based e-commerce system
• Create a real-time analytics pipeline using stream processing

Exercises:

• Implement a distributed transaction manager using the saga pattern
• Design a blockchain-based voting system
• Create a simple IoT data collection and analysis system

6. System Design Interview Practice (4 weeks)

6.1. Mock Interviews

• Partner with peers for mock interviews
• Practice explaining design decisions
• Work on time management during interviews

6.2. Case Studies

• Analyze existing system designs of popular services
• Understand trade-offs made in real-world systems
• Propose improvements to existing designs

6.3. Performance Optimization Scenarios

• Identify bottlenecks in given system designs
• Propose and evaluate optimization strategies
• Practice capacity planning for scaling systems

6.4. Failure Analysis and Recovery

• Design for fault tolerance
• Create disaster recovery plans
• Practice explaining failure modes and mitigation strategies

Exercises:

• Conduct at least 10 mock interviews with peers or mentors
• Analyze and present a case study on a real-world system architecture
• Design a system with specific failure scenarios and present recovery strategies

Ongoing Activities (Throughout the 8-12 months)

• Read relevant books (e.g., "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" by Martin Kleppmann)
• Follow system design blogs and YouTube channels
• Contribute to open-source projects related to distributed systems
• Attend tech talks and webinars on system design topics
• Participate in online forums and discussion groups focused on system design