Before we dive into designing complex distributed systems, we need to establish a solid foundation. These fundamental concepts are the building blocks that every system designer must understand.
Think of this section as learning the alphabet before writing essays. You wouldn’t try to design a scalable web application without understanding how the internet routes requests, right?
What You’ll Learn
In this section, we’ll cover the essential concepts that underpin all distributed systems:
- Domain Name System (DNS): The internet’s phonebook that translates human-readable domain names into IP addresses
- Client-Server Architecture: The fundamental model of how computers communicate
- Network Protocols: HTTP, REST, and how modern APIs work
- Data Partitioning and Sharding: Dividing data across multiple machines
- Replication: Keeping multiple copies of data for reliability and performance
- Consistency Models: Understanding trade-offs in distributed data
These aren’t just theoretical concepts—they’re the practical tools you’ll use in every system design interview and in building real-world systems.
Why These Matter
Every large-scale system you use daily—Google, Netflix, Amazon—relies on these fundamental concepts. Understanding them will help you:
- Make informed architectural decisions
- Communicate effectively with other engineers
- Identify potential bottlenecks and failure points
- Design systems that actually work at scale
Let’s build that foundation together!