https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/tags/system-design/ Recent content in System Design on Software Craftsperson https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/logos/web/png/Color%20logo%20-%20no%20background.png https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/logos/web/png/Color%20logo%20-%20no%20background.png Hugo -- 0.147.1 en Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:40:00 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/content-delivery-network/design-cdn/ Sat, 21 Dec 2024 12:16:28 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/content-delivery-network/design-cdn/ Design a highly available CDN from scratch. Learn about edge servers, caching strategies, content propagation, and global content distribution. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/key-value-store/design-kv-store/ Sat, 21 Dec 2024 12:16:28 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/key-value-store/design-kv-store/ Design a highly available key-value store like DynamoDB or Redis. Learn about consistent hashing, replication, partitioning, and handling failures. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/databases/2022-12-10-sys-des-db-1/ Sat, 10 Dec 2022 20:51:37 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/databases/2022-12-10-sys-des-db-1/ What is a database and why do we need it? Learn about database fundamentals, types of databases, SQL vs NoSQL, and when to use each for system design. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/load-balancers/2022-11-25-sys-des-lb/ Fri, 25 Nov 2022 17:55:38 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/load-balancers/2022-11-25-sys-des-lb/ What is a load balancer? Learn about global and local load balancing, load balancing algorithms, health checks, and how to scale distributed systems effectively. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/non-functional-requirements/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-10/ Sun, 30 Oct 2022 11:30:09 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/non-functional-requirements/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-10/ What is maintainability in system design? Learn about code quality, documentation, modularity, and building systems that are easy to modify and debug. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/foundational-concepts/2022-10-27-sys-des-det-4/ Thu, 27 Oct 2022 20:16:27 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/foundational-concepts/2022-10-27-sys-des-det-4/ What are abstractions and why are they crucial in system design? Learn how abstraction layers simplify complexity and enable scalable architectures. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/introduction/2022-10-16-sys-des-oview/ Sun, 16 Oct 2022 12:16:28 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/introduction/2022-10-16-sys-des-oview/ Why do organisations conduct system design interviews? What is expected from the candidate? Learn how to prepare and ace your system design interview. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/databases/2022-12-11-sys-des-db-2/ Sun, 11 Dec 2022 16:06:32 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/databases/2022-12-11-sys-des-db-2/ Understanding NoSQL databases - when to use them, types of NoSQL databases, and how they differ from relational databases for system design. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/load-balancers/2022-12-05-sys-des-lb-1/ Mon, 05 Dec 2022 21:27:29 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/load-balancers/2022-12-05-sys-des-lb-1/ Understanding Layer 4 and Layer 7 load balancers, OSI model, hardware vs software load balancers, and choosing the right load balancing approach. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/non-functional-requirements/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-11/ Sun, 30 Oct 2022 13:53:39 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/non-functional-requirements/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-11/ What is fault tolerance in system design? Learn about graceful degradation, redundancy, circuit breakers, and building systems that handle failures. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/foundational-concepts/2022-10-27-sys-des-det-5/ Thu, 27 Oct 2022 20:56:46 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/foundational-concepts/2022-10-27-sys-des-det-5/ Understanding consistency models from strong consistency to eventual consistency. Learn CAP theorem, consistency trade-offs, and choosing the right model. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/databases/2022-12-23-sys-des-db-3/ Fri, 23 Dec 2022 19:43:01 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/databases/2022-12-23-sys-des-db-3/ Learn about database replication strategies, disaster recovery, data redundancy, and ensuring high availability for distributed systems. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/non-functional-requirements/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-7/ Sun, 30 Oct 2022 08:25:15 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/non-functional-requirements/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-7/ What is availability in system design? Learn how to measure availability, understand SLAs, calculate nines (99.9%, 99.99%), and design highly available systems. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/foundational-concepts/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-6/ Sun, 30 Oct 2022 06:48:26 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/foundational-concepts/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-6/ Understanding failure modes in distributed systems. Learn about crash failures, Byzantine failures, network partitions, and the fallacies of distributed computing. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/databases/2024-12-13-sys-des-db-4/ Fri, 13 Dec 2024 19:43:01 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/databases/2024-12-13-sys-des-db-4/ Learn database sharding, partitioning strategies, consistent hashing, and how to scale databases horizontally for millions of users. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/foundational-concepts/2022-10-31-sys-des-det-12/ Mon, 31 Oct 2022 21:06:57 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/foundational-concepts/2022-10-31-sys-des-det-12/ Master back-of-the-envelope calculations for system design. Learn to estimate storage, bandwidth, QPS, and make quick capacity planning decisions. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/non-functional-requirements/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-8/ Sun, 30 Oct 2022 09:54:06 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/non-functional-requirements/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-8/ What is reliability in system design? Learn how to measure MTBF, MTTR, build fault-tolerant systems, and ensure consistent performance. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/introduction/2022-10-26-sys-des-det-3/ Wed, 26 Oct 2022 21:12:54 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/introduction/2022-10-26-sys-des-det-3/ What is system design and why does it matter? Learn the core concepts, principles, and thinking patterns behind designing scalable distributed systems. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/foundational-concepts/2022-11-21-sys-des-dns/ Mon, 21 Nov 2022 20:25:01 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/foundational-concepts/2022-11-21-sys-des-dns/ What is DNS and how does it work? Learn about the internet's phonebook, DNS architecture, resource records, and how domain names translate to IP addresses. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/non-functional-requirements/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-9/ Sun, 30 Oct 2022 11:07:16 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/courses/system-design/non-functional-requirements/2022-10-30-sys-des-det-9/ What is scalability in system design? Learn horizontal vs vertical scaling, load balancing, caching strategies, and designing systems for millions of users. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2025-12-04-sli-slo-reliability-shift-left/ Thu, 04 Dec 2025 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2025-12-04-sli-slo-reliability-shift-left/ A practical guide to defining SLOs and SLIs early in the SDLC so reliability requirements shape architecture, testing, and release decisions. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2025-10-08-transactional-outbox-pattern/ Mon, 08 Sep 2025 21:40:52 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2025-10-08-transactional-outbox-pattern/ How the Transactional Outbox Pattern solves the dual write problem between your database and message broker, with implementation choices and trade-offs. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2024-04-01-lack-product-thinking/ Mon, 01 Apr 2024 22:28:49 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2024-04-01-lack-product-thinking/ A rant on why engineers chase shiny tech over users' real problems: how rewriting a monolith into microservices went wrong, and why product thinking matters. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2024-02-18-how-email-works/ Sun, 18 Feb 2024 18:21:06 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2024-02-18-how-email-works/ Follow an email from sender to inbox: user agents, mail servers, SMTP, POP3 and IMAP, then how SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop spoofing of your domain. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2023-10-22-what-happens-during-tls-handshake/ Sun, 22 Oct 2023 14:02:28 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2023-10-22-what-happens-during-tls-handshake/ An illustrated, step-by-step walkthrough of the TLS handshake between a client and server over HTTPS using RSA key exchange, drawn for beginners. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2023-06-11-why-when-serverless/ Sun, 11 Jun 2023 13:02:28 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2023-06-11-why-when-serverless/ Serverless versus fully orchestrated solutions: cold starts, testing, lock-in, pay-per-use and built-in scaling, and how I answered it in an interview. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2022-10-16-system-design-overview/ Sun, 16 Oct 2022 12:16:28 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2022-10-16-system-design-overview/ What a system design interview is, why companies run them and what interviewers expect, with how to prepare and the distributed systems fundamentals to know. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2021-07-24-software-architecture/ Sat, 24 Jul 2021 15:37:38 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2021-07-24-software-architecture/ What software architecture is, what a software architect does and how architecture differs from design, with an example of improving a system's design. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2021-06-20-caching/ Sun, 20 Jun 2021 16:50:45 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2021-06-20-caching/ What caching is, why you can't cache everything, in-memory versus distributed caches, and the interfaces ASP.NET Core gives you for caching in web applications. https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2021-06-06-proxy-reverse/ Sun, 06 Jun 2021 15:25:41 +0100 https://www.softwarecraftsperson.com/posts/2021-06-06-proxy-reverse/ What a proxy server and a reverse proxy are, what each one is useful for and how they differ, explained simply for developers new to networking.