System Design Roadmap

EdgeWorks

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About this app

System Design Roadmap teaches you how large-scale systems are built, one short lesson at a time. Every topic comes with diagrams, tradeoffs and the interviewers questions, so you learn to reason about scale instead of memorizing answers.

A clear learning path: 25 lessons
Start with the foundations: back-of-the-envelope estimation, data centers and design patterns. Then work through databases, load balancing, caching, CDNs, API design, microservices, message queues, Kafka, event-driven architecture and the CAP theorem. Go further with replication and partitioning, consistent hashing, consistency models and consensus, distributed ID generation, object storage, search and indexing, rate limiting, API gateways, security and observability.

11 case studies, step by step
Walk through complete designs for a URL shortener, a rate limiter, search autocomplete, Twitter, WhatsApp, a notification system, YouTube, a web crawler, Dropbox / Google Drive, Uber and Netflix. Each one moves from requirements and estimates to APIs, data models and the high-level architecture. Tap any component in an architecture diagram to trace what it sends to and receives from.

107 interview questions
Practice conceptual, scenario-based, multiple-choice and design questions, each with an explanation. Take a 5-minute quick quiz, a 15-minute full practice set or a mock interview, or practice the questions linked to the lesson you just finished.

Spaced review and flashcards
Questions you miss come back right before you are likely to forget them. Flip through flashcards by category whenever you have a few spare minutes.

Track your progress
Streaks, XP, levels, badges and achievements show how far you have come. An optional daily reminder helps you keep the habit, and if you add your interview date, Home shows the pace you need to finish in time.

Built for focus
Light and dark themes, no account, and your progress stays on your device. Lessons, case studies and questions all work offline.

Who it is for
Software engineers preparing for system design interviews, students learning distributed systems, and developers who want to understand how the apps they use every day are put together.

The app is free and supported by ads.

Company and product names are used only to describe well-known systems. This app is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any of them.

What’s new

New in 1.2:
• 5 new lessons, including CQRS, vector search and RAG, and cost-aware design
• 10 new case studies, from Google Maps to a stock exchange
• Search everything, a glossary and a numbers cheat sheet
• Notes on any lesson or case study
• A day-by-day plan to your interview date and a stats page
• A whiteboard in mock interviews
• A home screen widget for your streak