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.

Two users edit the same contract simultaneously. User A saves first (version 3 -> 4). User B then tries to save their changes (also based on version 3). What should happen?

The system detects a version conflict and asks User B to resolve it, their save attempt should fail because the version they based their edit on is stale, This is optimistic concurrency control. User B's UPDATE includes WHERE version = 3, but the version is now 4 (after User A's save). The UPDATE affects zero rows, signaling a conflict. The application asks User B to review User A's changes and re-submit. This prevents silent data loss.

What's the main advantage of a separate history table over a version column on the same table?

The main table stays lean (only current data), so reads don't need to filter through old versions, With version columns on the same table, every query needs WHERE version = (latest) to avoid old data. The table grows with every edit, making scans slower. A separate history table keeps the main table clean, only current rows, no filtering needed. History is queried only when explicitly needed.

Which versioning approach do banks use for their transaction ledgers?

Event sourcing, every debit, credit, and reversal is stored as an immutable event, and the balance is derived from replaying all events, Banking requires a complete, immutable audit trail. Event sourcing stores every transaction as an event (debit $100, credit $50, reversal $25). The balance is always the sum of all events. You can never delete or modify a past event, only add new corrective events.

Versioned Data

Name: System Design Masterclass
Availability: InStock

in Database Fundamentals

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

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Foundation lessons free, try before you buy

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

Anish K., Senior Engineer at a Bengaluru startup

All 766 interactive lessons

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