System Design
System Design Fundamentals
- What you Need to Know
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Scalability and Performance Concepts
- Horizontal vs vertical scaling strategies
- Load balancing and traffic distribution
- Caching layers and performance optimization
- Resources:
- System Design Primer - Comprehensive system design guide
- High Scalability - Real-world scalability case studies
- Designing Data-Intensive Applications - Modern data system design
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Distributed Systems Concepts
- CAP theorem and consistency models
- Distributed consensus and fault tolerance
- Eventual consistency and conflict resolution
- Resources:
- Distributed Systems Course - University of Illinois distributed systems
- CAP Theorem Explained - Consistency, availability, partition tolerance
- Raft Consensus Algorithm - Distributed consensus protocol
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Database Design and Data Modeling
- Relational database design and normalization
- NoSQL database selection and modeling
- Data partitioning and sharding strategies
- Resources:
- Database Design Course - University of Colorado database design
- NoSQL Data Modeling - NoSQL design patterns
- Database Sharding - Horizontal partitioning strategies
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Microservices Architecture
- What you Need to Know
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Microservices Design Principles
- Service decomposition and bounded contexts
- API design and service contracts
- Service communication patterns
- Resources:
- Microservices Patterns - Comprehensive microservices pattern catalog
- Building Microservices - Microservices architecture guide
- Domain-Driven Design - DDD concepts for service boundaries
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Service Communication and Integration
- Synchronous communication with REST and GraphQL
- Asynchronous messaging and event-driven architecture
- Service discovery and load balancing
- Resources:
- API Design Guide - Google API design principles
- Message Queue Patterns - Enterprise integration patterns
- Service Discovery - Service discovery strategies
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Data Management in Microservices
- Database per service pattern
- Distributed transactions and saga pattern
- Event sourcing and CQRS implementation
- Resources:
- Microservices Data Patterns - Data management strategies
- Saga Pattern - Distributed transaction management
- Event Sourcing - Event-driven data architecture
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High-Level System Architecture
- What you Need to Know
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Load Balancing and Traffic Management
- Layer 4 vs Layer 7 load balancing
- Load balancing algorithms and strategies
- Global load balancing and CDN integration
- Resources:
- Load Balancing Concepts - Load balancing fundamentals
- HAProxy Configuration - High-performance load balancer
- CDN and Global Load Balancing - Content delivery networks
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Caching Strategies and Implementation
- Browser caching and HTTP cache headers
- Application-level caching with Redis
- Database query caching and optimization
- Resources:
- Caching Best Practices - AWS caching strategies
- Redis Caching - In-memory caching implementation
- HTTP Caching - Browser and proxy caching
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Content Delivery and Static Assets
- Content Delivery Networks (CDN) integration
- Static asset optimization and compression
- Image optimization and responsive media
- Resources:
- CDN Implementation Guide - CDN concepts and implementation
- Web Performance Optimization - Google performance best practices
- Image Optimization - Image performance optimization
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Security Architecture
- What you Need to Know
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Application Security Design
- Defense in depth and security layers
- Authentication and authorization architecture
- Secure communication and encryption
- Resources:
- OWASP Application Security - Application security standards
- Security Architecture - SANS security architecture guide
- Threat Modeling - Security threat analysis
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Infrastructure Security
- Network security and firewall configuration
- Container security and image scanning
- Secrets management and key rotation
- Resources:
- Infrastructure Security - NIST cybersecurity framework
- Container Security - Kubernetes security best practices
- Secrets Management - HashiCorp Vault documentation
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Performance and Monitoring
- What you Need to Know
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Application Performance Monitoring (APM)
- Performance metrics and KPI tracking
- Error tracking and alerting systems
- User experience monitoring
- Resources:
- APM Best Practices - Application performance monitoring
- Monitoring and Observability - Google SRE monitoring guide
- Error Tracking - Error monitoring and alerting
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System Observability
- Logging strategies and centralized logging
- Distributed tracing for microservices
- Metrics collection and visualization
- Resources:
- Observability Engineering - Observability principles
- Distributed Tracing - Tracing implementation guide
- ELK Stack - Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana
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Capacity Planning and Scaling
- What you Need to Know
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Traffic Estimation and Resource Planning
- Load testing and capacity modeling
- Resource utilization analysis
- Growth forecasting and scaling strategies
- Resources:
- Load Testing Guide - Modern load testing framework
- Capacity Planning - Google SRE capacity planning
- Performance Testing - Testing pyramid and strategies
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Auto-Scaling and Dynamic Resource Management
- Application auto-scaling policies
- Database scaling and read replicas
- Cost optimization and resource efficiency
- Resources:
- Auto-Scaling Patterns - AWS auto-scaling guide
- Kubernetes Autoscaling - Container auto-scaling
- Cost Optimization - Cloud cost optimization strategies
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System Design Interview Preparation
- What you Need to Know
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Common System Design Problems
- Social media platforms and news feeds
- Chat systems and real-time messaging
- Video streaming and content delivery
- Resources:
- System Design Interview - Common interview questions and solutions
- Grokking System Design - System design interview preparation
- High Scalability Examples - Real-world system architectures
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Design Process and Communication
- Requirements clarification and constraint identification
- High-level design and component interaction
- Detailed design and implementation considerations
- Resources:
- System Design Process - Systematic approach to design problems
- Technical Communication - Explaining technical designs clearly
- Architecture Decision Records - Documenting design decisions
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