Skill
System design
How real systems stay up: caching, queues, replication, consistency trade-offs and capacity back-of-envelope — reasoned from constraints, not buzzwords.
Do these first
What you will be able to do
- Sketch a design from requirements and constraints
- Choose between cache, queue and replication with reasons
- Estimate load, storage and bandwidth on paper
Curated resources
Start with the pick, then branch out
Scores are LearnPath editorial opinions (clarity, cost, freshness, project density) — not an objective ranking. Every YouTube item is embedded officially after a click-to-load facade.
2h 5mLearnPath pickLearnPath pickyoutube courseintermediate
System Design Course – APIs, Databases, Caching, CDNs, Load Balancing & Production Infra
freeCodeCamp.org2h 5m
A 2025 freeCodeCamp system design course covering APIs, database choices, caching, CDNs, load balancing and observability with diagrams and worked examples. The most current end-to-end treatment verified.
Score 89
Watch
54 minFastest pathQuick pathyoutube videointermediate
System Design Concepts Course and Interview Prep
freeCodeCamp.org54 min
Fifty minutes of interview framing — how to structure an answer, what interviewers probe, and the handful of concepts that decide most outcomes.
Score 81
Watch
2h 45mBest for beginnersMore curatedyoutube coursebeginner
System Design Interview Prep for Beginners (Full Course)
KodeKloud2h 45m
A 2026 refresh of the system design basics from KodeKloud: requirements, load balancers, caching, database choices and the trade-offs behind each, aimed at people who have never designed a service. It is the gentlest on-ramp in this category and it is genuinely current, so a beginner is not learning architecture from a decade-old diagram.
Score 82
Watch
18 minFastest pathMore curatedyoutube videointermediate
How to Prepare for System Design Interviews w/ Meta Staff Engineer
Hello Interview18 min
An 18-minute walkthrough by a Meta staff engineer of how system design interviews are actually evaluated: how to scope requirements, talk through trade-offs and drive the conversation instead of silently drawing boxes. Small commitment, and it reframes the interview as communication.
Score 72
Watch
10 minMore curatedyoutube videobeginner
System Design Interview: A Step-By-Step Guide
ByteByteGo10 min
A ten-minute illustrated pass over the whole system design landscape — exactly the orientation a learner needs before a two-hour course.
Score 71
Watch