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Systems Engineering Track

Distributed Systems for Production Engineers

Trace lost replies, duplicate charges, slow requests and stale reads through an order and payment case study. Run independent models of retries, tail latency and replication lag, then defend the guarantees and costs of each repair.

Advanced · production systems
About 165 min reading
35 authored sections

Before you start: Trace an HTTP request, read a small program, and explain a database transaction. Production experience helps with the design reviews.

Plan for 5–7 hours of hands-on work in addition to reading. This is an initial estimate; setup and extensions vary.

Open before purchase

A useful preview, not a teaser

Read these complete sections to judge the technical depth, teaching style, and architecture standard before buying.

Preview 1

Course Contract: What You Will Be Able to Operate

This course teaches failure first and theory second, because that is the order you met them in.

Preview 2

The Third Outcome

A local function call has two endings. A network call has three, and the third one is where production goes wrong.

Preview 3

Why a Retry Charges the Customer Twice

Watch it happen with real money, in a program you can run.

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Complete curriculum

35 sections · 2 parts + systems studio

Course orientation

  1. Course ContractFree
  2. Start Here If You Are NewCourse Pass
  3. The System We BreakCourse Pass

Part 1 · What a Network Adds

  1. The Third OutcomeFree
  2. What a Timeout MeansCourse Pass
  3. Why a Retry Charges TwiceFree
  4. Safe to RepeatCourse Pass
  5. Choosing the KeyCourse Pass
  6. The Number That Pages YouCourse Pass
  7. Queues and SaturationCourse Pass
  8. Head-of-Line BlockingCourse Pass
  9. What You Can CloneCourse Pass
  10. Amdahl and the Scalability LawCourse Pass
  11. A Vocabulary for FailureCourse Pass

Part 2 · Agreeing on What Is True

  1. The Refresh That LiedCourse Pass
  2. Consistency Is a ContractCourse Pass
  3. Read-Your-WritesCourse Pass
  4. CAPCourse Pass
  5. PACELCCourse Pass
  6. Linearizable vs SerializableCourse Pass
  7. Who Accepts a WriteCourse Pass
  8. The Write You LostCourse Pass
  9. When Both Writes HappenedCourse Pass
  10. Quorum ArithmeticCourse Pass
  11. Choosing by InvariantCourse Pass

Systems Studio

  1. Lab 1 · Double ChargeCourse Pass
  2. Lab 2 · Fan-out and the TailCourse Pass
  3. Worked Run · SaturationCourse Pass
  4. Lab 3 · Replication LagCourse Pass
  5. Challenge · Charge OnceCourse Pass

Architect’s Desk

  1. ADR-001 · IdempotencyCourse Pass
  2. When It Is the Wrong AnswerCourse Pass
  3. Review This DesignCourse Pass
  4. AssessmentCourse Pass
  5. ReferencesCourse Pass