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 is the key difference between RBAC and ACL?

RBAC assigns permissions via roles attached to users, while ACLs attach permission lists directly to each resource, RBAC is user-centric: permissions flow from roles to users. ACLs are resource-centric: each resource maintains its own list of who can do what. Most production systems use both.

When do ACLs become problematic?

When per-resource permission entries grow large over time and become difficult to audit, with stale entries for former employees and forgotten contractors, ACLs accumulate entries as people are added but rarely removed. Without automated auditing, stale entries from departed employees and expired contractors become a growing security risk.

Why do most production systems combine RBAC and ACLs?

RBAC handles broad organizational access patterns efficiently, while ACLs handle per-resource exceptions like sharing a specific document with a contractor, RBAC covers the 90% case: everyone in a role gets the same access. ACLs cover the exceptions: sharing a specific document with an external reviewer, granting temporary access to one database. The combination gives both scalability and precision.

Access Control Lists (ACL)

Name: System Design Masterclass
Availability: InStock

in Security Architecture

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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India

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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

Step-by-step animated diagrams

Live code editors with real execution

Quizzes with instant feedback

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