Learn the step-by-step methodology that senior engineers use to approach problems systematically and practically.
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How to approach System Design by Arpit Bhayani
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System Design
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Learn the step-by-step methodology that senior engineers use to approach problems systematically and practically.
Understand why system design problems seem impossible at first and discover the mindset shift that makes them manageable.
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Learn why taking small, incremental steps is the most effective way to design complex systems.
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Picture this: Someone walks up to you and says "Design Facebook." Your brain immediately starts spinning - , servers, users, , security... It feels like trying to eat an elephant in one bite!
This overwhelming feeling is completely normal. Even senior engineers with decades of experience feel this way when first approaching a complex problem.
The Secret: System design is extremely practical. Instead of getting lost in abstract concepts, think like the engineer who actually has to build and code this system.
When you approach system design with a builder's mindset,
you naturally start asking the right questions: "If I had to implement this tomorrow, what would I need?"
This practical thinking cuts through the complexity.
System design isn't about drawing fancy boxes - it's about solving real problems that real engineers face when building real systems.
Imagine trying to climb Mount Everest in one giant leap - impossible, right? But thousands of people have reached the summit by taking one step at a time.
works exactly the same way. Take baby steps, no matter how complex the problem seems.
Here's what baby steps look like in system design:
This approach works because complex systems are just collections of simpler systems working together. When you master the art of breaking things down, even designing something as massive as Google or Amazon becomes manageable.
Key Insight: "The most complex systems in the world were built one small, carefully planned step at a time."
Discover why understanding the problem deeply is the foundation of all successful system designs.
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Here's a scenario that happens all the time: An engineer gets excited about a problem and immediately starts drawing boxes and talking about .
Two hours later, they realize they've designed something completely different from what was asked.
Understanding the problem statement is your foundation. Everything else builds on top of this understanding.
Consider this example:
When you design within constraints, you create highly optimized solutions. And here's the magic:
A system optimized for 100 million can often scale to 200 million or even 1 billion with minor adjustments.
Constraints aren't limitations - they're your guide to building the perfect solution for the actual problem.
Learn the systematic approach to decomposing large problems into manageable, focused components.
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Someone says "Design Facebook" and your mind goes blank. Here's the secret: nobody designs Facebook all at once.
Instead, think about what Facebook actually does:
Sudenly, "Design Facebook" becomes "Design 5 separate systems that work together."
Each component should be:
Now instead of one impossible problem, you have multiple solvable problems!
Key Insight: "The art of is knowing where to draw the lines between components."
See the systematic approach in action with a concrete example of designing Instagram's feed system.
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Let's apply our approach to design Instagram's feed system:
Step 1: Understand the problem
Step 2: Break into components
Step 3: Go deep on Feed Generator To generate a feed, we need to:
Key Decision: Should we generate feeds in real-time or pre-generate them?
Real-time: User waits 5 seconds every time (bad!) Pre-generated: Feeds ready instantly (good!)
This is asynchronous processing - generate feeds in background, serve them instantly.
Key Insight: "The best system designs make the user experience feel magical by doing the hard work behind the scenes."
Consolidate everything into a practical framework you can use for any system design problem.
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You now have a complete toolkit for approaching any problem. Here's your step-by-step framework:
🎯 Phase 1: Understand (5-10 minutes)
🧩 Phase 2: Break Down (10-15 minutes)
🔍 Phase 3: Go Deep (20-30 minutes)
⚙️ Phase 4: Technical Decisions (15-20 minutes)
🔄 Phase 5: Iterate (Ongoing)
Key Insight: "Great system design is not about having all the answers immediately - it's about asking the right questions and building solutions systematically."
Understand the four critical technical decisions you must make for every component in your system.
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Understand the mindset and thought processes that separate senior engineers from beginners in system design.
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Once you have your components defined, it's time to make them real. For every component, you need to make decisions in four key areas:
1. and
2. Scaling and Fault Tolerance
3. Asynchronous Processing
4. Communication
These four pillars turn your conceptual design into a buildable system.
Key Insight: "Every successful makes deliberate choices in these four areas for every component."
What makes a senior engineer's approach different?
It's not just experience - it's a fundamentally different way of thinking:
Beginner Thinking:
Senior Engineer Thinking:
Senior engineers build intuition through practice.
They've seen systems fail, so they know what causes problems.
They've maintained legacy code, so they value simplicity.
The Senior Engineer Checklist:
✓ Can I explain this design to a junior developer?
✓ Would I want to debug this system at 3 AM?
✓ Does each component have a single, clear responsibility?
✓ Am I solving the actual problem or an imaginary one?
mastery isn't about memorizing patterns - it's about developing the judgment to make good trade-offs.
Master the technique of diving deep into individual components while maintaining system-wide perspective.
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Now you have your components: Authentication, Feed, Notifications. What's next? Pick one and go deep.
Let's say you choose the Feed component. Start thinking like an engineer who has to implement it:
"To build a feed, I need:
Notice what happened? You broke the Feed component into sub-components, each with clear responsibilities.
But here's the critical rule: If you're not sure what a component does, don't draw it.
For example, you might think "Maybe I need an Aggregator?" But if you can't clearly explain what it does, skip it. Better to have fewer, well-defined components than many vague ones.
Key Insight: "When in doubt, remove that part. Clarity beats completeness every time."
Learn when to start with the big picture and when to start with technical details.
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Different problems require different starting points. Here's how to choose:
Top-Down Approach (Start with features) Use when: Given a big, complex problem Examples: "Design Facebook", "Design Uber", "Design Netflix" Process: Features → Components → Technical Details
Bottom-Up Approach (Start with technical details)
Use when: Given a specific, focused problem
Examples: "Design a cache", "Design a ", "Design a load balancer"
Process: Database → Components → System Architecture
Example of Top-Down: "Design Twitter" → Features (Tweet, Follow, Timeline) → Components → Database choices
Example of Bottom-Up: "Design a rate limiter" → Algorithm choice → Data structure → Integration points
The key is recognizing which type of problem you're dealing with and starting at the right level of abstraction.
Key Insight: "The best engineers intuitively know whether to zoom out to see the forest or zoom in to see the trees."
