System Design & Architecture
Learn to design scalable, fault-tolerant systems — from URL shorteners to recommendation engines to RAG pipelines. The skill that separates senior engineers from everyone else.
Why System Design?
System design is the interview round that separates senior engineers from everyone else. Every top-tier tech interview includes it — and most candidates fail not from lack of knowledge, but from never having been taught to think through trade-offs out loud.
of FAANG-level interviews include a system design round — this is how they filter, and it's a learnable skill when taught the right way.
Systems now require RAG pipelines, vector DBs, and context window design — a new frontier that didn't exist in most engineers' training.
Amazon, Google, Flipkart, Swiggy, Zepto, Atlassian, funded startups.
Want the full programme details?
Download our comprehensive brochure (PDF)
Learning Outcomes
By completing this programme, you will be able to:
- Design large-scale distributed systems — from requirements to component diagram to trade-off analysis.
- Choose the right database (SQL vs. NoSQL, graph, time-series, vector) for each use case.
- Design APIs, caching layers, message queues, and CDNs that handle real-world load.
- Draw clear, professional architecture diagrams and walk through them confidently in interviews.
- Estimate capacity, throughput, and latency — and design to meet SLAs.
- Design LLM-native systems: RAG pipelines, vector stores, and context window management.
Your Learning Roadmap
A week-by-week path from foundations to job-readiness.
System Design Fundamentals
Scalability, availability, consistency — the trade-offs every architect navigates.
Databases: SQL, NoSQL & Beyond
When to use Postgres, MongoDB, Redis, Cassandra, or a vector DB.
Caching & CDN Design
Design multi-layer caching strategies that reduce latency by 90%.
API Design & Rate Limiting
REST, GraphQL, gRPC — choose, design, and protect your interfaces.
Message Queues & Event-Driven Architecture
Kafka, SQS, and the decoupling patterns that make systems resilient.
Designing for Scale
Horizontal scaling, sharding, load balancing, and consistent hashing.
Real-World Case Studies
Design URL shorteners, ride-sharing, social feeds, and payment systems.
Microservices & Service Mesh
Break monoliths, manage communication, and handle distributed failures.
Observability: Monitoring & Alerting
Metrics, logs, and traces — build systems you can operate, not just launch.
LLM-Native System Design
Design RAG pipelines, vector stores (Pinecone, pgvector), and context window systems.
Mock System Design Interviews
Live practice with structured feedback from ex-Amazon engineers.
Skill Gain Forecast
Proficiency benchmarks based on cohort outcomes. These are measured at your Week 8 oral viva — not estimated from syllabus coverage.
Proficiency you'll reach by Week 8
Proficiency you'll reach by Week 8
Proficiency you'll reach by Week 8
Proficiency you'll reach by Week 8
Proficiency you'll reach by Week 8
Proficiency you'll reach by Week 8
Skills You Will Master
Distributed Systems
CAP theorem, consistency models, replication
Database Selection
SQL, NoSQL, vector DBs, time-series
API Design
REST, GraphQL, versioning, rate limiting
Caching
Redis, Memcached, CDN strategies
Event-Driven Systems
Kafka, SQS, and async patterns
Capacity Estimation
Back-of-envelope scaling math
RAG Architecture
LLM-native system design patterns
Arch Diagramming
C4, draw.io, documentation
Tools Covered
Hands-on experience with the tools used by architects.
Job Roles You Can Target
- Senior Software Engineer
- Staff Engineer
- Solutions Architect
- Backend Lead
- Platform Engineer
- Engineering Manager
Who Is This For?
Senior Engineers
Developers with 4+ years of experience looking to scale their systems from thousands to millions of users.
Staff/Lead Candidates
Engineers preparing for top-tier system design interview rounds at FAANG and high-growth startups.
Product Leaders
Tech-focused PMs or aspiring architects who need to understand technical trade-offs deeply.
Is This Course Right For You?
This course is deliberately specific. Here's who gets the most out of it — and who should look at another stream first.
✓ Great fit
✕ Not the fit
Architecture Deep-Dive FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Both. We teach real system design concepts and apply them to the types of problems asked in senior engineering interviews. You leave with both the skill and the ability to demonstrate it.
Not required. We discuss AWS concepts at a high level but focus on architectural patterns that apply across any cloud or on-premise setup.
Week 10 covers designing systems that integrate LLMs — specifically RAG pipelines, vector databases (Pinecone, pgvector), and managing context windows at scale. This is the frontier of 2025 system design.
Each mock is a 45-minute session where you design a system under realistic constraints, followed by structured feedback from Nisha Krishnan on approach, trade-offs, and communication.
Yes — you receive documented templates for all 5 case study designs, including diagrams and trade-off analyses, to use as portfolio pieces.