Preparing for a System Design interview can take anywhere from 3 to 10 weeks, depending on your skill level, the role you’re applying to, and other external factors. Ideally, you should commit to 3 hours a day for 5 days a week.
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System Design Interview: Fast-Track in 48 Hours
Need to learn System Design in a hurry? Grasp essential concepts, practice real design scenarios, and build interview confidence—all through 15-minute problem sets crafted for speed and impact.
4.5
39 lessons
1 AI mock interview
2 breakout sessions
7h
Created by Fahim ul Haq
What's included
- 39 lessons across 4 modules
- 46 quizzes with instant feedback
- 1 AI mock interview with scoring rubrics
- 2 breakout sessions with a virtual coach
- AI Tutor on every lesson
Why this course
- Ace System Design InterviewsWalk into any System Design interview with a structured approach that clearly communicates your design decisions under pressure.
- Design Scalable SystemsArchitect scalable, reliable systems using load balancers, databases, and distributed components to meet real-world demands.
- Implement Distributed SolutionsBuild and optimize distributed systems, including caches and messaging queues, to enhance performance and reliability.
- Evaluate Design Trade-offsConfidently assess trade-offs in system design, articulating choices that balance scalability, availability, and performance.
Who wrote it
Fahim ul Haq
Software Engineer, Distributed Storage at Meta and Microsoft, Educative (Co-founder & CEO)
Fahim ul Haq is the co-founder and CEO of Educative, a hands-on learning platform for software engineers. He spent nearly a decade as a software engineer at Microsoft and Meta, where he gained deep experience building large-scale distributed systems. His work spanned Project Red Dog at Microsoft, which evolved into Microsoft Azure, and Scuba, Meta's real-time data analytics engine. In 2015, Fahim co-founded Educative to help developers get hands-on with new skills. Fahim's courses have helped hundreds of thousands of engineers learn System Design and prepare for technical interviews. Fahim earned his M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Washington in 2015.
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What You'll Learn
- Understand the fundamentals of System Design and its importance in interviews, focusing on structured approaches under pressure.
- Analyze core components such as load balancers, databases, and DNS, and their roles in building scalable systems.
- Design and implement key system components, including distributed caches, messaging queues, and monitoring services.
- Evaluate trade-offs in System Design decisions, including scalability, availability, and performance across various architectures.
- Apply systematic frameworks to tackle real-world System Design problems, enhancing confidence in interview scenarios.
Learning Roadmap
1.
Introduction
Introduction
This chapter introduces you to System Design and its Interview, course structure, prerequisites, and how it prepares you for system design interviews.
2.
Elementary Design Problems
Elementary Design Problems
This chapter teaches you fundamental system designs like load balancers, distributed caches, messaging queues, etc. essential for designing real-world systems.
Domain Name System (DNS)Load BalancersDatabases in Distributed SystemsDesign a Key-Value StoreDesign a Content Delivery Network (CDN)Design a Unique ID GeneratorDesign a Client-Side Monitoring ServiceDesign a Server-Side Monitoring ServiceDesign a Distributed CacheDesign a Distributed Messaging QueueDesign a Pub-SubDesign a Rate LimiterDesign a Blob StoreDesign a Distributed SearchDesign a Distributed Logging ServiceDesign a Distributed Task SchedulerDesign Sharded Counters
3.
Advanced Design Problems
Advanced Design Problems
19 Lessons
19 Lessons
This chapter focuses on complex designs like YouTube, Uber, Google Maps, Instagram, etc., honing your skills for the tough system design interviews.
Certificate of Completion
Showcase your accomplishment by sharing your certificate of completion.
Complete more lessons to unlock your certificate
About this course
WHY I WROTE THIS COURSE
I created this System Design interview prep crash course after spending years interviewing engineers at companies like Meta and Microsoft. I kept seeing the same pattern: candidates who were strong in coding would struggle the moment the System Design interview began. It was because they didn’t have a clear way to approach System Design under pressure. That’s exactly why I built this course to help you master System Design in a hurry, without feeling overwhelmed.
System Design interviews aren’t about memorizing architectures or listing technologies. They’re about how you think. Can you break down an ambiguous problem? Can you make the right trade-offs? Can you communicate your decisions clearly? The candidates who succeed are the ones with a structured approach they can rely on. In this course, I’ve distilled that approach into a simple, repeatable framework.
Instead of scattered topics, you’ll learn System Design step by step, from understanding requirements to designing scalable systems and explaining your choices with confidence. Each lesson builds your intuition and prepares you for real interview scenarios. This is the same mindset I’ve seen successful candidates use to stand out.
Whether you’re preparing for your first System Design interview or trying to level up quickly, this course gives you a practical path forward. By the end, you’ll know how to apply System Design concepts effectively, even when time is limited and the pressure is high.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fahim ul Haq
Software Engineer, Distributed Storage at Meta and Microsoft, Educative (Co-founder & CEO)
Trusted by 3.1 million developers working at companies
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