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Systems Engineering Track

Modern System Design

Estimate before you draw and name the assumption the answer turns on, resolve a skewed distribution with a measured threshold, choose a rate limiter by the burst it permits, and state the four-clause trade for every component in a design.

Advanced · production systems
About 200 min reading
38 authored sections

Before you start: The rest of the systems spine, or equivalent production experience with partitioning, replication, queues and caching.

Plan for 6–8 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

Last in the sequence: the decisions that recur in every large system, and the previous nine courses read as one design.

Preview 2

What Are We Actually Building

The step people skip, and the one that makes every later step tractable.

Preview 3

Estimate First. It Takes Four Minutes.

The break. The arithmetic decides the architecture, and it is faster than arguing about it.

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Complete curriculum

38 sections · 4 parts + design studio

Course orientation

  1. Course ContractFree
  2. Start Here If You Are NewCourse Pass
  3. The System So FarCourse Pass

Part 1 · Before the Diagram

  1. What Are We Actually BuildingFree
  2. Estimate FirstFree
  3. Which Assumption Decides ItCourse Pass
  4. Numbers Worth KnowingCourse Pass

Part 2 · Patterns That Recur

  1. Skew Wants Two DesignsCourse Pass
  2. Write-Time or Read-TimeCourse Pass
  3. The Limit That Was DoubledCourse Pass
  4. Generating an IdentifierCourse Pass
  5. Search Is a Second SystemCourse Pass
  6. Proximity and GeohashingCourse Pass
  7. Content AddressingCourse Pass

Part 3 · Composing It

  1. The API Is the ContractCourse Pass
  2. Where to CutCourse Pass
  3. Splitting Reads From WritesCourse Pass
  4. Four Places to CacheCourse Pass
  5. Refusing Work DeliberatelyCourse Pass
  6. One System, Many TenantsCourse Pass

Part 4 · Defending It

  1. Naming the TradeCourse Pass
  2. What Breaks FirstCourse Pass
  3. Designing for Version TwoCourse Pass
  4. The Design ConversationCourse Pass
  5. Answers That Do Not SurviveCourse Pass

Design Studio

  1. Lab 1 · One AssumptionCourse Pass
  2. Lab 2 · The Boundary BurstCourse Pass
  3. Lab 3 · The ThresholdCourse Pass
  4. Challenge · Hold the LimitCourse Pass

Architect’s Desk

  1. ADR-010 · Build or BuyCourse Pass
  2. Interview vs MondayCourse Pass
  3. Review This ArchitectureCourse Pass

The Staff-Level Packet

  1. The RFCCourse Pass
  2. Risks and Threat ModelCourse Pass
  3. Three ReviewersCourse Pass
  4. When Code Writes ItselfCourse Pass
  5. AssessmentCourse Pass
  6. ReferencesCourse Pass