Learn System Design
By Building It

Read the curriculum, then practice in the lab. Start with client-server basics and work up to large-scale distributed architectures.

32
Chapters
75
Challenges
7
Case Studies

30+ Supported Node Types

Client Mobile Client Web Browser IoT Device DNS CDN Load Balancer API Gateway Reverse Proxy Service Mesh API Server Web Server Worker Lambda Microservice Cron Job SQL Database NoSQL Database Cache Object Storage Search Index Data Warehouse Graph Database Time Series DB Message Queue Event Bus Stream Processor Pub/Sub Webhook Auth Service Rate Limiter Firewall WAF Encryption Monitoring Log Aggregator Alerting Tracing Failover Switch Circuit Breaker Service Registry Config Server Container Orchestrator Client Mobile Client Web Browser IoT Device DNS CDN Load Balancer API Gateway Reverse Proxy Service Mesh API Server Web Server Worker Lambda Microservice Cron Job SQL Database NoSQL Database Cache Object Storage Search Index Data Warehouse Graph Database Time Series DB Message Queue Event Bus Stream Processor Pub/Sub Webhook Auth Service Rate Limiter Firewall WAF Encryption Monitoring Log Aggregator Alerting Tracing Failover Switch Circuit Breaker Service Registry Config Server Container Orchestrator

Build, simulate, and score in one place

Drag components, wire them up, run a simulation, and get scored across 5 dimensions.

32 chapters across 9 modules

Start with client-server basics and move toward systems that serve millions.

01
Introduction
Beginner
02
Client-Server
Beginner
03
Networking
Beginner
04
Databases
Beginner
05
Caching
Intermediate
06
Load Balancing
Intermediate
Explore 26 more courses →

9 Interactive Quizzes

Each quiz covers one module. Instant feedback and detailed explanations for every question.

Fundamentals

Ch 1–4

Scaling

Ch 5–8

Architecture

Ch 9–12

Production

Ch 13–15

Explore 5 more quizzes →

75 production-style challenge scenarios

Build under constraints, debug bottlenecks, and improve architecture decisions with guided challenge tracks.

C1
Cake Shop 1 - Going Online
Cake Shop Series
C2
RideShare 1 - City Launch
RideShare Series
C3
Social Feed 1 - MVP Launch
Social Feed Series
C4
Chat App 1 - Team Messaging
Chat App Series
Explore 71 more challenges →

28 guided architecture labs

Follow structured, hands-on walkthroughs that teach core architecture patterns step by step.

L1
Your First System
Foundations
L2
Supercharge with Caching
Performance
L3
Load Balancing & Horizontal Scaling
Scalability
L4
API Gateway & Authentication
Security
Explore 24 more labs →

Ready to start building?

Start in the design lab or work through the curriculum. No sign-up required.