The complete path
The System Design Roadmap
Most people learning system design get stuck on the same problem: they do not know what to learn, or in what order. This roadmap fixes that. It lays out the entire field as a single ordered path, from your first request and response all the way to distributed consensus and keeping a system alive under failure. Every topic links to real lessons, so you can start anywhere and always know what comes next.
22
Topics
766
Lessons
4
Levels
Foundation
The building blocks every system rests on. Master these before anything else.
Core Fundamentals
26 lessonsLatency vs ThroughputVertical vs Horizontal ScalingStateless vs StatefulCaching & Load BalancingIdempotency & Timeouts
Explore Core Fundamentals Load Balancing and Proxies
26 lessonsDNS and routing basicsLoad balancer algorithmsForward vs reverse proxyRouting strategiesSessions and affinity
Explore Load Balancing and Proxies Caching Strategies
36 lessonsCache layers and placementRead patterns (cache-aside, read-through)Write patterns (write-through, write-back)TTL, eviction, and invalidationStampede prevention
Explore Caching Strategies Database Fundamentals
31 lessonsIndexing & B-TreesNormalization vs DenormalizationQuery OptimizationViews & Materialized ViewsReplication & Read Replicas
Explore Database Fundamentals Intermediate
How real services are built, connected, deployed, and secured.
Database Types and Storage
39 lessonsStorage layers: file, block, object, blobRow vs columnar storageNoSQL families: key-value, document, graphSearch and inverted indexesVector databases and ANN
Explore Database Types and Storage Data Replication and Distribution
31 lessonsSync vs Async ReplicationReplication LagReplication TopologiesActive-Active vs Active-PassiveConsistent Hashing
Explore Data Replication and Distribution API Design and Protocols
28 lessonsREST vs GraphQL vs gRPCBinary encodings (Protobuf, Avro)Rate limiting algorithmsIdempotency and safe retriesAPI versioning
Explore API Design and Protocols Messaging and Event Systems
41 lessonsMessage Queues and Pub/SubDelivery GuaranteesIdempotency and DeduplicationDead Letter and Poison MessagesWebSockets and SSE
Explore Messaging and Event Systems Microservices Architecture
36 lessonsMonolith vs MicroservicesDomain-Driven Design & Bounded ContextsDatabase per ServiceResilience PatternsService Discovery & Mesh
Explore Microservices Architecture Cloud Infrastructure
45 lessonsVPC and SubnetsCIDR and IP AddressingNAT and GatewaysIaaS / PaaS / SaaSServerless and Cold Start
Explore Cloud Infrastructure Kubernetes and Containers
22 lessonsContainers and imagesRegistries and versioningDeclarative orchestrationControllers and reconciliationWorkload types
Explore Kubernetes and Containers Web Content Delivery
31 lessonsRendering: CSR, SSR, SSG, ISRCompression (Gzip, Brotli)Image optimization & formatsLazy & responsive loadingBrowser storage & service workers
Explore Web Content Delivery DevOps and CI/CD
36 lessonsContinuous IntegrationContinuous Delivery vs DeploymentBranch Strategies and Version ControlBuild and Test AutomationBlue-Green, Canary, Rolling
Explore DevOps and CI/CD Security Architecture
57 lessonsAuthenticationAuthorization and access controlEncryption at rest and in transitTLS, certificates and PKIOAuth, SSO and federation
Explore Security Architecture Observability and Monitoring
60 lessonsLogs, Metrics, TracesGolden Signals (RED & USE)SLI / SLO / SLAError BudgetsMTTD / MTTA / MTTR
Explore Observability and Monitoring Data Governance and Compliance
23 lessonsValidation and Schema ChecksData Quality and ProfilingCleansing and TransformationPII HandlingMasking vs Anonymization vs Pseudonymization
Explore Data Governance and Compliance Advanced
The hard parts: distributed coordination, consistency, scale, and staying up.
Distributed Systems Core
24 lessonsCAP theorem and partitionsConsensus and quorumLeader election and locksLogical clocks and orderingReplica repair (gossip, read repair)
Explore Distributed Systems Core Consistency Models
21 lessonsLinearizabilitySequential & Causal ConsistencySession Guarantees (read-your-writes)SerializabilitySnapshot Isolation
Explore Consistency Models Stream and Batch Processing
36 lessonsBatch vs StreamingETL and ELTWindowingWatermarks and Late DataStateful Processing
Explore Stream and Batch Processing Reliability and Resilience
85 lessonsAvailability and SLOsBackups and Disaster RecoveryFailover StrategiesResilience PatternsIncident Response
Explore Reliability and Resilience Security Testing and Operations
12 lessonsCode ReviewsSAST and Static AnalysisSCA and Dependency RiskDAST and Vulnerability ScanningPenetration Testing
Explore Security Testing and Operations Capstone
Put it all together by designing complete systems end to end.
Frequently asked questions
- What order should I learn system design in?
- Start with the foundations: core metrics like latency and throughput, load balancing, caching, and databases. Then move to how real services are built and connected: storage types, replication, APIs, messaging, microservices, and cloud infrastructure. Finish with the advanced material: distributed systems, consistency models, stream processing, and reliability. This roadmap orders all 22 topics that way so you never wonder what comes next.
- How long does it take to learn system design?
- With steady effort, the foundations take one to two weeks, the intermediate topics take three to four weeks, and the advanced material takes another two to three weeks. If you want a fixed schedule, the 30-day plan maps this roadmap to a day-by-day study guide.
- Is this system design roadmap free?
- The roadmap and the first eleven foundation lessons are free with no signup. Full access to all 766 lessons is a one-time payment of 299 rupees in India or 5 dollars worldwide, with no subscription.
- Do I need a computer science degree to follow this?
- No. The roadmap starts from absolute fundamentals and explains every term in plain language before using it. Career switchers and self-taught developers follow the same path as CS graduates.
Start at the beginning, for free
Eleven Foundation lessons are free with no signup. Full lifetime access to all 766 lessons is 299 rupees in India or 5 dollars worldwide, one payment, no subscription.