HABITIX

Sign inGet Started

Course overview

System Design for Beginners

Learn system design from the ground up with short, practical lessons and real-world architecture examples.

A beginner-friendly system design course that explains how modern software systems are designed, scaled, and made reliable. Each lesson is intentionally small enough to complete in about 10–20 minutes. The course starts with fundamentals, then moves through APIs, databases, caching, queues, scaling, reliability, and finally complete architecture examples such as URL shorteners, chat systems, notification systems, food delivery, and Uber-like applications.

Learning path

Course curriculum

6 modules

  1. 01

    Module 1 — System Design Foundations

    Build the basic mental model needed to understand and discuss system design without assuming prior experience.

    4 lessons
    1. 01 · What Is System Design?Understand what system design means, why it matters, and what happens when a simple application grows.Free
    2. 02 · Functional vs Non-Functional RequirementsLearn the difference between what a system does and how well it must do it.Paid
    3. 03 · Capacity, Traffic, and Latency BasicsLearn the basic numbers used to reason about system size without doing complicated mathematics.Paid
    4. 04 · From Requirements to ArchitectureLearn a repeatable beginner workflow for moving from a problem statement to an initial system diagram.Paid
  2. 02

    Module 2 — APIs, Servers, and Data

    Understand the building blocks that applications use to communicate and store information.

    4 lessons
    1. 01 · How Clients and Servers CommunicateUnderstand the basic request-response model and the role of HTTP.Free
    2. 02 · API Design for BeginnersLearn how to think about endpoints, HTTP methods, request data, responses, and errors.Paid
    3. 03 · Choosing a DatabaseUnderstand the basic difference between relational and NoSQL databases and how to choose based on data needs.Paid
    4. 04 · Indexes and Database PerformanceLearn why indexes make reads faster and why too many indexes can hurt writes.Paid
  3. 03

    Module 3 — Caching and Asynchronous Work

    Learn two of the most common system design techniques: caching expensive reads and moving slow work to background workers.

    4 lessons
    1. 01 · Caching FundamentalsUnderstand what caching is, why it works, and where a cache fits in an architecture.Free
    2. 02 · Redis as a System Design ComponentUnderstand the role of Redis in caching, counters, sessions, rate limits, and coordination.Paid
    3. 03 · Background Jobs and QueuesLearn how queues move slow or unreliable work out of the main request path.Paid
    4. 04 · Events and Pub/SubUnderstand events, publishers, subscribers, and when asynchronous communication is useful.Paid
  4. 04

    Module 4 — Scaling and Reliability

    Learn how systems handle more users, more requests, and failures while remaining understandable and maintainable.

    4 lessons
    1. 01 · Vertical vs Horizontal ScalingUnderstand the two basic ways to increase system capacity.Free
    2. 02 · Load BalancersUnderstand what load balancers do and why they are common in scalable web architectures.Paid
    3. 03 · Database Replication and Read ScalingUnderstand primary-replica architecture and why read-heavy systems may use replicas.Paid
    4. 04 · Sharding and PartitioningUnderstand the basic idea of splitting data across multiple database nodes.Paid
  5. 05

    Module 5 — Reliability, Consistency, and Production Thinking

    Learn how real systems deal with failures, consistency, security, observability, and operational problems.

    4 lessons
    1. 01 · Failure Is NormalLearn to design with the assumption that servers, networks, databases, and external services can fail.Free
    2. 02 · Consistency and Eventual ConsistencyUnderstand consistency in simple terms and why distributed systems sometimes accept temporary differences.Paid
    3. 03 · Timeouts, Retries, and IdempotencyLearn three basic techniques for making service-to-service communication safer.Paid
    4. 04 · Logging, Metrics, and ObservabilityUnderstand the basic signals required to operate a production system.Paid
  6. 06

    Module 6 — Complete System Design Examples

    Apply the course concepts to progressively larger real-world architecture problems, from a URL shortener to an Uber-like application.

    5 lessons
    1. 01 · Design a URL ShortenerDesign a simple URL shortener from requirements through API, database, caching, and scaling decisions.Free
    2. 02 · Design a Chat SystemDesign a one-to-one and group chat system using persistent storage and real-time communication.Paid
    3. 03 · Design a Notification SystemDesign a scalable notification service that can send email, SMS, and push notifications asynchronously.Paid
    4. 04 · Design a Food Delivery SystemDesign a simplified food delivery platform covering restaurants, orders, drivers, payments, and live order status.Paid
    5. 05 · Design an Uber-Like Ride Hailing SystemBring together APIs, databases, caching, real-time communication, queues, location search, and reliability into one larger system.Free