javinpaul

Posted on Sep 24, 2022 • Updated on May 1, 2023

10 Best Websites to Learn System Design and Software Architecture for Interviews

#programming #coding #java #development

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image_credit - Educative.io

Hello devs, if you are preparing for System design Interview and looking for best resources to master Software design and System design then you have come to the right place.

Earlier, I have shared best System Courses, Books, and System Interview Questions and in this article, I am going to share best places to learn System design in 2022.

But, before we get to the best websites that will teach you everything you need to know about system design, let me tell you a little bit about what it really is. Systems design is basically the process of defining elements of a system including modules, architecture, components, interface, and data for a system based on a specific set of requirements.

It can also refer to the process of defining, developing, and designing systems. These designs have to satisfy the specific needs of a company or an organization.

10 Best Places to Prepare for Software Design and System Design Interviews

As a System designer, you have to make use of all the different modeling languages for expressing the information and knowledge in the structure of a system. This system has to be defined by a consistent set of rules and definitions. It can also be defined in textual or graphical modeling languages.

There are different kinds of graphical modeling languages like the Unified Modeling Language, UML, Flowchart, Business Process Modeling Notation, and Systems Modeling Language.

There are also different types of design methods that you can make use of. They include Architectural Design, Logical Design, and Physical Design.

Here we have compiled a list of the best websites for learning system design. Keep reading to find out more.

1. ByteByteGo by Alex Yu

This is one of the most amazing platform to learn about System design concepts and also prepare for System Design Interview. This website is created by Alex Yu, author of popular System Design Interview -- An insider's guide books, one of the most recommend books for System Design interview. This website also serves as the digital version of his book but it offers much more than that. '

Alex has shared detailed, step by step framework to solve system design questions from interviews like How to design YouTube and How to design a chat system. He also regular share interesting content on System Design which are quite useful to learn about essential System design concepts like scaling, caching and distribute messaging.

If you are preparing for System design interview then I highly recommend you to checkout this website and join his course. You can also use code JALJAD to get 10% discount, specially secured for Javarevisited reader.

Here is the link to join this course - 10% discount on ByteByteGo

2. Udemy [Best Platform for System Design Course]

This is a wonderful website that will teach you everything you need to know about system designing along with grokking from absolute scratch. In this way, it is absolutely perfect for complete beginners. Udemy is a perfect starting guide for beginners looking to enter the amazing world of system design.

Using this fantastic website, you will learn about all the core features of advanced system design. You will also become a very advanced system designer. You will be able to master both system design and grokking.

Here are the best System design courses from Udemy which are worth looking:

By the time you finish all the courses on Udemy, you will become an expert system designer and also be ready to solve those complex System design problems like how to design YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp or a messaging queue.

3. Educative [Best Interactive System Design Platform]

Educative is one of my favorite for learning system design on the internet right now. It is basically a website that has been literally created to prepare you for a system design interview. Through this website, you will also get an idea of how to approach system design in general.

It is also one of the only websites out there that will teach you about large-scale distributed system design problems in painstaking detail. It does not matter even if you are an expert in the field. I am pretty sure that you will find this website a valuable learning experience.

The smart people who have created this website have also gone the extra mile to give you a list of design choices. This list will make you understand the requirement, compare different approaches, and finally come up with a suitable solution for the complex problem that you are facing.

Here are the best System Design Courses from Educative.io:

What makes Educative really interesting is also the fact that the instructors do not spoon-feed you anything. You are required to work on the problem and come up with innovative solutions yourself. If you are looking for just one website that will thoroughly prepare you for a system design interview, you do not need to look any further.

Here is a nice System Design Cheat sheet from Educative for quick revision:

The instructors on Educative will also share with you their first-hand experiences on how to solve a complex system design problem. You will learn about all the different tips, tricks, concepts, and approaches for solving system design questions in general.

You will also have the opportunity to practice a lot of classic system design problems like the web crawler, URL shortener, and designing a restaurant reservation system.

These System Design courses on Educative will teach you about different techniques that are useful for scaling distributed systems. You will get an overview of database technologies and NoSQL solutions. In addition, you will also learn how to use caching for improving scalability and performance.

By the way, you can either join this course individually or you can take an Educative Unlimited subscription for just $14.9 per month on annual plan (recommended) to get access to their 350+ high quality, text-based, interactive courses to learn key skills for coding interviews, software development, and technology.

4. Exponent

This is another great website to learn about System design and prepare for System design interview, especial for FAANG companies. There System Design Interview Course has 36 lessons and it provides solutions of system design questions like Design Twitter, Instagram, Parking lot, design a Web Crawler, and many other popular Software design questions.

They also have dedicated course for different FAANG companies, For example they have a dedicate course for Amazon SDE interview which not only prepare you for tech round but also conduct mock interviews to check your actual preparation level. They also have a similar courses for Google interview as well.

The best thing I liked about Exponent is their mock interviews which is like real drill as well 1-to-1 coaching and interactive discussion on popular interview questions from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon,

If you are preparing for System design interviews on FAANG companies then I highly recommend this course and website and you can join them for just $12 a month now (70% discount).

Here is the link to join Exponent - Try Exponent now

5. Coursera

Coursera is another awesome place to learn in-demand tech skill online. The best thing about Coursera is that their course materials are designed and delivered by world class universities and top tech companies like Google, AWS, and IBM.

When it comes to Software design, I really liked Software Design and Architecture Specialization from University of Alberta, which contains a couple of nice courses related to software design.

The fantastic courses on Coursera will act as a great brief introduction to the amazing world of modern system design. It is perfect for beginners as you will learn about system design from absolute scratch. You will learn exactly what system design is and why is it used.

Coursera is also a great choice that will help you take your skills in object-oriented design to another level. You will be able to do this by using object-oriented system design rather than the traditional system design techniques. The courses on this website will also teach you how to pass your system design interview. You will also learn how to get jobs at Google. Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon.

By the way, If you are planning to join multiple Coursera courses or specializations, then consider taking a Coursera Plus subscription which provides you unlimited access to their most popular courses, specialization, professional certificate, and guided projects. It costs around $59/ per month but is worth it because you get access to more than 7000+ courses and projects, and you can also get unlimited certificates.

6. LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is an exciting website with a lot of courses that will teach you everything you need to know about the basics of machine learning system design in the shortest time possible. The website will also teach you everything you need to know about machine learning and system design.

On this fantastic website, you will learn everything you need to know about the different components of system design for getting hired by major IT companies. You will start by learning about the basics of system design. Then you will move on to understand what exactly is system design.

Here is the best System design course from LinkedIn Learning:

Software Architecture Patterns

By the time you finish all the courses on this website, you will be able to get a very good job at major tech companies.

By the way, you would need a LinkedIn Learning membership to watch this course which costs around $19.99 per month but you can also watch this course for FREE by taking their 1-month-free-trail which is a great way to explore their 17500+ online courses on the latest technology.

7. Pluralsight

Pluralsight is a fantastic website that will help you polish your machine learning and system design skills. You will be able to do this by grokking your way to getting a very good machine learning job.

Using the exciting courses on this website, you will also be able to learn the fundamentals of designing in Java.

You will also be able to start your amazing journey by making use of these amazing courses. When it comes to System design, I really liked their Patterns for Building Distributed Systems for The Enterprise course, its one of the best Software design course on Pluralsight.

It is perfect for experienced developers In the fantastic courses on Pluralsight, you will learn about all the core features of domain-driven system design, CAP theorem, CQRS etc. You will also become a very advanced system designer. You will be able to master domain-driven system design.

By the way, you would need a Pluralsight membership to join this course which costs around $29 per month or $299 per year (14% discount). I highly recommend this subscription to all programmers as it provides instant access to more than 7000+ online courses to learn any tech skill. Alternatively, you can also use their 10-day-free-pass to watch this course for FREE.

8. System Design Primer in Github

This is another awesome resource for folks preparing for System design interviews. The System design primer is a great collection of various System Design tutorials and questions which you can access for free to prepare for System design interviews.

If you are looking for free resources to prepare for System design interviews then I highly recommend this website on Github, its actually a Github repo of free System design resources.

Btw, if you need more free resources then you can also checkout this list of best free System design courses where I have shared free online courses on System design form Udemy as well as best YouTube channels to learn System Design and prepare for System Design interview.

Now, if you are wondering What are common System Design Interview questions? then let me tell you that many questions like how to design YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and distributed messaging queues are popular System questions which you can practice before interviews.

I have shared 25 system design questions here, you can check

9. FreeCodeCamp YouTubeChannel

If you don't freecodecamp's YouTube channel is the best place to learn anything tech related. It contains hundreds of high quality courses contributed by experts around the world to support the mission of free teaching @ freecodecamp.

I have learned many useful skills on their website and YouTube channel like React.js, Algorithms, Responsive web design and much more.

Recently they launched a great system design course for beginner course where you can learn fundamental concepts of system design like API design, Database Design, Network protocols, Fault-tolerance, design trade-offs, solution tradeoffs, and low-level design.

You will learn how to build a large-scale distributed systems like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter which can withstand the test of time in production

Here are the topics which are covered in this course:

⭐️ Contents ⭐️
⌨️ (0:00:00) What is System Design
⌨️ (0:02:27) Design Patterns
⌨️ (0:04:07) Live Streaming System Design
⌨️ (0:07:42) Fault Tolerance
⌨️ (0:08:32) Extensibility
⌨️ (0:09:49) Testing
⌨️ (0:10:32) Summarizing the requirements
⌨️ (0:11:27) Core requirement - Streaming video
⌨️ (0:14:52) Diagramming the approaches
⌨️ (0:17:12) API Design
⌨️ (0:20:02) Database Design
⌨️ (0:22:32) Network Protocols
⌨️ (0:29:07) Choosing a Datastore
⌨️ (0:32:57) Uploading Raw Video Footage
⌨️ (0:34:37) Map Reduce for Video Transformation
⌨️ (0:39:24) WebRTC vs. MPEG DASH vs. HLS
⌨️ (0:41:55) Content Delivery Networks
⌨️ (0:42:27) High-Level Summary
⌨️ (0:44:48) Introduction to Low-Level Design
⌨️ (0:47:00) Video Player Design
⌨️ (0:49:17) Engineering requirements
⌨️ (0:50:32) Use case UML diagram
⌨️ (1:02:32) Class UML Diagram
⌨️ (1:06:27) Sequence UML Diagram
⌨️ (1:11:49) Coding the Server
⌨️ (1:24:23) Resources for System Design

And here is the free System design course you can watch it right here or on YouTube

10. ZTM Academy

ZTM Academy also have a great course on System Design. If you don't know ZTM stands for Zero to Mastery and this one of the new online portal to learn Coding and web development. It's created by Andrew Negaoie, one of my favorite Udemy instructor.

In this course, you will not only learn about how to design a modern system but also about other key system design concepts like horizontal and vertical scaling, caching, replication, distributed systems and much more.

Here is the link for course - Master the Coding Interview: System Design + Architecture

Btw, you would need a ZTM membership to watch this course which costs around $39 per month but also provides access to many super engaging and useful courses like his JavaScript Web Projects: 20 Projects to Build Your Portfolio course. You can also use my code FRIENDS10 to get a 10% discount on any subscription you choose.

That's all about the 10 best places to learn System Design and Software Design in depth. These sites are not just great resources to learn System design concepts but also to prepare for System Design Interview but also to improve design of the software and applications you are designing. If you liked this list of the best websites and online platforms for learning system design, feel free to share it with your friends and family.

You can also drop a comment if you have any doubts about the system design and we will get back to you in an instant. I have no doubt that the websites in this list will transform you from a complete beginner to a system design expert within a matter of weeks or months.

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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you know any excellent online resources like websites or programming platforms to learn System Design and Software Designing, especially for beginners, which you think complements these two websites, then feel free to share. Everybody loves great resources and happy learning System design.

P. S. - If you are looking for a free online course to learn System Design and Software design then I also suggest you to checkout this Case Studies for System Design Interviews free course on Udemy by Erdem. This 2-hour free course is great resource to prepare for System design interviews.

Top comments (1)

Sagar • Sep 25 '22

Thanks for sharing such useful links.

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