The System Design Interview, by Lewis C. Lin and Shivam P. Patel, is a comprehensive book that provides the necessary knowledge, concepts, and skills to pass your system design interview.

It's written by industry professionals from Facebook & Google. Get their insider perspective on the proven, practical techniques for answering system design questions like Design YouTube or Design a TinyURL solution.

Unlike others, this book teaches you exactly what you need to know.

FEATURING THE PEDALS METHOD™, THE BEST FRAMEWORK FOR SYSTEM DESIGN QUESTIONS

The book revolves around an effective six-step process called PEDALS:

Process Requirements

Estimate

Design the Service

Articulate the Data Model

List the Architectural Components

Scale

PEDALS demystifies the confusing system design interview by breaking it down into manageable steps. It’s almost like a recipe: each step adds to the next. PEDALS helps you make a clear progression that starts from zero and ends with a functional, scalable system.

The book explains how you can use PEDALS as a blueprint for acing the system design interview.

The book also includes detailed examples of how you can use PEDALS for the most popular system design questions, including:

Design YouTube

Design Twitter

Design AutoSuggest

Design a TinyURL solution

ALSO COVERED IN THE BOOK

What to expect and what interviewers look for in an ideal answer

How to estimate server, storage, and bandwidth needs

How to design data models and navigate discussions around SQL vs. NoSQL

How to draw architecture diagrams

How to build a basic cloud architecture

How to scale a cloud architecture for millions of users

Learn the best system strategies to reduce latency, improve efficiency, and maintain security

Review of technical concepts including CAP Theorem, Hadoop, and Microservices