Is this a video course?

No. This is an interactive, slide-based learning platform. Each lesson has rich text, animated diagrams, live code editors, and quizzes. You learn by reading, interacting, and doing, not by watching videos passively.

How long do I have access?

Forever. Both pricing tiers are one-time payments with lifetime access. This includes all current 766 lessons and any future content we add.

What level of experience do I need?

None. We start from absolute basics like 'What is latency?' and build up to distributed consensus protocols. The Foundation level assumes zero prior knowledge of system design.

How much does the system design course cost?

7.99 US dollars for lifetime access globally, or 499 Indian rupees for lifetime access in India. One-time payment, no subscription, no hidden fees. 11 lessons are free with no signup required.

What technologies are covered?

Everything from DNS and load balancers to Kubernetes, Kafka, distributed databases, consensus protocols, stream processing, security architecture, and observability. We cover principles and real-world implementations used at Netflix, Google, Amazon, Uber, Stripe, and more.

Is this useful for system design interview preparation?

Yes. The lessons are structured around the exact topics asked in system design interviews at FAANG and top-tier companies. Interactive diagrams help you practice whiteboard-style explanations. Covers everything from URL shortener design to distributed payment systems.

How is this different from ByteByteGo or Educative?

766 interactive lessons (4x more than most competitors), 16 different diagram types that build step by step, real production examples from Netflix, Google, Amazon, Uber, and Stripe, and lifetime access for a one-time payment of $7.99 instead of annual subscriptions costing 100 to 200 dollars per year.

What does a connection timeout protect against?

A server that is unreachable or cannot accept new connections, A connection timeout covers the TCP handshake phase, establishing the connection itself. If the server is unreachable, down, or too overloaded to accept connections, the connection timeout prevents your client from waiting indefinitely. Slow processing is handled by the request/read timeout (next lesson).

Service A calls Service B in the same data center. The connection typically establishes in 2ms. What's a reasonable connection timeout?

1-2 seconds, short but not so aggressive that network hiccups cause false failures, 1-2 seconds gives plenty of headroom over the normal 2ms connection time while still failing fast if Service B is actually down. 2ms is way too aggressive, even a brief network hiccup would cause false failures. 30 seconds is way too long, if a same-datacenter service isn't responding in 2 seconds, it's not going to respond in 30. And no timeout is never the answer.

Your app has no connection timeout configured. The payment service goes down. What is most likely to happen?

Threads pile up waiting for a connection that will never come, eventually bringing down your entire app, Without an explicit connection timeout, most HTTP clients wait indefinitely (or rely on the OS timeout, which is typically 2+ minutes). Each request to the dead payment service holds a thread. As more requests come in, more threads get stuck. Eventually you run out of threads, and your app can't serve any requests, even ones that don't involve the payment service. This is a textbook cascading failure.

Connection Timeout

Name: System Design Masterclass
Availability: InStock

in Core Fundamentals

This lesson is part of the full System Design Masterclass. Unlock it along with 765 other lessons for a one-time payment.

One-time payment. Lifetime access. No subscription.

Global

$19.99$7.99/lifetime

One-time payment via PayPal

Get Lifetime Access

Foundation lessons free, try before you buy

Founders price, locked for the first 10,000 customers

India Special

India

₹999₹499/lifetime

One-time via UPI, cards, or net banking

Get Lifetime Access

Foundation lessons free, try before you buy

Founders price, locked for the first 10,000 customers

“The interactive diagrams alone are worth way more than the price.”

Anish K., Senior Engineer at a Bengaluru startup

All 766 interactive lessons

Step-by-step animated diagrams

Live code editors with real execution

Quizzes with instant feedback

Completion certificates per level

Lifetime access, all future content included

The first 5 Foundation lessons are free, no payment needed. Try them now