How to Prepare and Crack System Design Interviews ?

Here is an extensive list of topics, resources, and strategies to help you prepare for system design interviews:

Core Concepts

1. Scalability
   • Horizontal vs Vertical Scaling
   • Load Balancing
2. Reliability
   • Redundancy
   • Failover Mechanisms
3. Availability
   • High Availability Systems
   • SLA, SLO, and SLI
4. Consistency
   • CAP Theorem
   • Strong vs Eventual Consistency
5. Partition Tolerance
   • Network Partitions
   • Data Sharding
6. Data Storage
   • SQL Databases (RDBMS)
   • NoSQL Databases (Document, Key-Value, Column-Family, Graph)
   • In-memory Databases
7. Caching
   • Caching Strategies (Write-through, Write-back, Write-around)
   • Cache Eviction Policies (LRU, LFU, FIFO)
8. Load Balancing
   • Load Balancing Algorithms (Round Robin, Least Connections, IP Hash)
   • Global vs Local Load Balancing
9. Message Queues
   • Message Brokers (RabbitMQ, Kafka, SQS)
   • Pub/Sub Systems
10. Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
    • CDN Architecture
    • Benefits and Use Cases
11. Microservices Architecture
    • Microservices vs Monolithic Architecture
    • Service Discovery
    • API Gateways
12. RESTful Services and gRPC
    • Designing REST APIs
    • gRPC vs REST
13. Authentication and Authorization
    • OAuth, JWT, SSO
    • Authentication Protocols
14. Monitoring and Logging
    • Metrics Collection (Prometheus, Grafana)
    • Log Aggregation (ELK Stack)
15. Search Systems
    • Indexing
    • Search Algorithms
16. Rate Limiting and Throttling
    • Implementing Rate Limiting
    • Token Bucket Algorithm
17. Design Patterns
    • Singleton, Factory, Observer, etc.
    • Circuit Breaker, Bulkhead, etc.

System Design Topics

1. Designing URL Shortening Service (e.g., Bit.ly)
2. Designing a Scalable Web Crawler
3. Designing a News Feed System (e.g., Facebook, Twitter)
4. Designing a Video Streaming Service (e.g., YouTube, Netflix)
5. Designing a Chat System (e.g., WhatsApp, Messenger)
6. Designing an E-commerce System (e.g., Amazon)
7. Designing a Ride-Sharing System (e.g., Uber, Lyft)
8. Designing a Distributed File Storage System (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox)
9. Designing a Social Network (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn)
10. Designing a Notification System
11. Designing a Metrics Monitoring System
12. Designing a Rate Limiter
13. Designing an API Rate Limiting System
14. Designing a Search Engine
15. Designing a Multiplayer Game System
16. Designing a Payment Processing System
17. Designing a Hotel Booking System

Recommended Books

1. Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann
2. Site Reliability Engineering by Google
3. The Art of Scalability by Martin L. Abbott and Michael T. Fisher
4. Building Microservices by Sam Newman
5. System Design Interview by Alex Xu

Online Courses and Resources

1. Grokking the System Design Interview (Educative)
2. System Design Primer (GitHub Repository)
3. Coursera Courses on Cloud Computing and Scalability
4. MIT OpenCourseWare (Distributed Systems)
5. YouTube Channels:
   • Gaurav Sen
   • Tech Dummies Narendra L
   • System Design Hub

Practice Platforms

1. LeetCode (System Design Section)
2. Pramp (Mock Interviews)
3. Interviewing.io (Mock Interviews)
4. Exercism.io

Study Tips

1. Understand the Basics:
   • Make sure you have a solid understanding of core computer science concepts like data structures, algorithms, and database design.
2. Study Real Systems:
   • Analyze how large-scale systems like Google, Facebook, and Amazon are designed.
3. Solve Real Problems:
   • Practice designing systems based on real-world requirements and constraints.
4. Discuss with Peers:
   • Join study groups or forums to discuss design problems and solutions.
5. Stay Updated:
   • Keep up with the latest trends and technologies in the field of system design and architecture.

By systematically covering these topics, utilizing the recommended resources, and practicing regularly, you’ll be well-prepared for system design interviews.