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.

Service A generates a trace ID and calls Service B. Service B doesn't propagate the traceparent header when calling Service C. What happens to the trace?

Service C starts a new trace with a new trace ID, the trace is broken into two disconnected fragments, Trace propagation depends on each service forwarding the traceparent header. If Service B doesn't propagate it, Service C has no way to know about the existing trace, it starts a new one with a new trace ID. The result is two incomplete traces instead of one complete one. This is the most common tracing setup error.

Why is the trace ID 128 bits (32 hex chars) instead of something shorter like a UUID v4?

128 bits is a UUID v4, they're the same size, A 128-bit trace ID is effectively the same size as a UUID v4 (also 128 bits). The OpenTelemetry specification uses 128 bits to ensure uniqueness across high-traffic distributed systems with virtually zero collision probability. The W3C Trace Context standard formalizes this as the required size.

Trace IDs

Name: System Design Masterclass
Availability: InStock

in Observability Monitoring

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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