System design, backend and frontend

Choose a track

• 23 modules · 70 of 210 lessons published

  Backend System Design

  Servers, data and distributed systems: SQL and indexing, caching, queues, consistency, scaling, resilience and security, built around Java and one running reference application.

  Open the backend track

• 24 modules · 18 of 220 lessons published

  Frontend System Design

  The browser, rendering, state, data fetching, performance, security and real-time: how a page is built and delivered, and how to design the client side of a product.

  Open the frontend track

How the two tracks connect

Each topic has one home lesson in the track that owns it best, and a short paired lesson in the other. Start from either side.

Learning paths

Pick a goal and follow its modules in order. Modules that are still being written are marked.

• Backend foundations

  Requirements, estimation, networking and API design.

  1. B01 Foundations and requirements
  2. B02 Networking and protocols
  3. B04 API design

• Databases and SQL

  Relational design, indexing, transactions, and when to choose NoSQL.

  1. B05 Relational databases and SQL
  2. B06 NoSQL and specialized stores

• Distributed systems

  Consistency, consensus, replication and distributed data patterns.

  1. B07 Distributed systems theory
  2. B08 Data scaling
  3. B12 Distributed data consistency patterns

• Scalability

  Replication, sharding, load balancing and caching.

  1. B08 Data scaling
  2. B09 Compute scaling and load balancing
  3. B10 Caching

• Microservices and messaging

  Queues, event streaming, sagas and architecture styles.

  1. B11 Messaging and event streaming
  2. B12 Distributed data consistency patterns
  3. B13 Architecture styles

• Resilience and security

  Failure handling, authentication, authorization and observability.

  1. B14 Resilience engineering
  2. B15 Security
  3. B16 Observability and operations

• Frontend foundations

  The browser, the web platform and how front-end code is organised.

  1. F01 Introduction to frontend system design
  2. F02 Web fundamentals and networking
  3. F03 HTML, CSS and JavaScript architecture (coming soon)
  4. F04 Browser architecture

• React and rendering

  React internals, application architecture, state and rendering strategies.

  1. F05 React fundamentals and internals (coming soon)
  2. F06 Frontend application architecture (coming soon)
  3. F07 State management (coming soon)
  4. F09 Rendering architecture

• Frontend performance

  Core Web Vitals, loading, caching and data fetching.

  1. F10 Performance engineering
  2. F08 API integration and data architecture (coming soon)

• Micro-frontends and enterprise

  Module Federation, enterprise architecture and advanced patterns.

  1. F12 Micro-frontends (coming soon)
  2. F21 Enterprise frontend architecture (coming soon)
  3. F22 Advanced architectural patterns (coming soon)

• AI frontends

  Designing streaming, AI-powered interfaces.

  1. F20 AI-powered frontends (coming soon)

• Full-stack architect

  The back end and the front end together, from requirements to capstones.

  1. B01 Foundations and requirements
  2. F01 Introduction to frontend system design
  3. B04 API design
  4. F08 API integration and data architecture (coming soon)
  5. B15 Security
  6. F11 Frontend security (coming soon)
  7. B13 Architecture styles
  8. F12 Micro-frontends (coming soon)
  9. B22 Architect interview and capstone (coming soon)
  10. F24 Architect interview and capstone (coming soon)

• System design interview fast track

  The method, the case studies and the interview practice for both tracks.

  1. B01 Foundations and requirements
  2. B21 Backend case studies
  3. B22 Architect interview and capstone (coming soon)
  4. F23 Case studies (coming soon)
  5. F24 Architect interview and capstone (coming soon)