Welcome to Beyond CRUDs
System design interviews are hard — not because the problems are unsolvable, but because most engineers have never had to think at that level.
This site gives you a structured path to get there: learn the foundational concepts, then apply them by designing and building real systems.
What's Here
System Design — crisp, interview-focused coverage of the concepts that matter most. No fluff. Each topic is short enough to read in one sitting, dense enough to give you real depth.
- Distributed systems fundamentals, consensus, replication, partitioning, consistency
- Storage engines, networking, clocks and ordering
- 15+ system design walkthroughs: pub/sub, key-value store, distributed cache, blob store, rate limiter, and more
Build System — go beyond design by actually implementing two production-grade distributed systems from scratch.
- API Gateway — routing, load balancing, middleware, authentication, rate limiting, observability
- Distributed Log — inspired by Kafka: low-level log, Raft consensus, replication, producer/consumer
Building a system is the fastest way to move from "I know how this works conceptually" to "I know why it works this way."
Who This Is For
Engineers preparing for system design interviews who want real understanding, not just patterns to memorize.
Engineers who want to go deeper into distributed systems by reading focused material and writing real code.
No prior distributed systems knowledge required — just curiosity and the willingness to build.
Next Steps
If you're preparing for interviews — start with System Design. Work through concepts first, then the system walkthroughs.
→ Start with System Design Concepts
→ Jump to System Design Walkthroughs
If you want to build — go to Build System and work through the chapters in order. Each chapter builds on the previous one.