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Software Engineering

Systems Design Interview Masterclass

A repeatable framework for any system design interview, from URL shorteners to distributed schedulers.

4.8(2,143)18.4K students25 lessons · 6h 47m

Last updated 12 Jul 2026, 00:00

Priya Nataraj · Staff Software Engineer, ex-Meta
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About this course

Systems design interviews reward a way of thinking, not a memorised answer. This course builds that framework from the ground up (scaling, storage, messaging and trade-offs) then applies it to five full case studies you could be asked to design tomorrow. By the end you'll be able to walk into a whiteboard interview and structure an answer with confidence.

What you'll learn

  • Break down any system design prompt into a repeatable framework
  • Reason about scaling, latency and availability trade-offs out loud
  • Design real systems: URL shorteners, feeds, chat, dispatch, schedulers
  • Choose the right database and caching strategy for the workload
  • Explain CAP theorem, consistency models and replication clearly
  • Handle senior and staff-level interview follow-up questions with confidence

Curriculum

6 sections · 25 lessons · 6h 47m

  • Why systems design interviews matter8m
  • Client-server model and networking basics14m
  • Reading and estimating back-of-the-envelope numbers16m
  • A framework for any design question12m

Student reviews

Jordan Casey

02 Apr 2025, 00:00

5.0

Clear, well-paced, and every concept builds on the last. Exactly what I needed.

Ben Sorensen

21 Nov 2025, 00:00

4.0

Good structure, real examples, no filler. That's rare.

Ella Vance

26 Mar 2026, 00:00

5.0

I've taken a lot of courses on this topic. This one actually stuck.