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System design can be daunting. At least, I felt that way when I wanted to learn system design as a beginner. The latest trends and buzzwords make it harder to know what to learn and where to start. But do not worry! In this article, I'll suggest a great starting point for beginners and explain why it's crucial to learn how to design systems.
Systems design is an integral component of large-scale application design and forms the backbone of applications such as twitter, facebook, instagram, and many others. It is essential to design applications that ensure reliable operations, scale effectively with growing demand, and remain maintainable for programmers working on the system.
To understand the fundamental concepts of system design and write quality code, I recommend exploring these books. They also serve as a useful resource for preparing for technical interviews at the world's top companies. This list combines personal recommendations with general popularity among programmers. Let's get started then!
1. Design patterns first
Author: Eric Freeman, Elisabeth Robson, Bert Bates, Kathy Sierra
Link: Design patterns first
A personal recommendation! A beginner's guide to system design patterns and architectural patterns. This guide uses visual aids, flowcharts, and UML diagrams to create simple examples from scratch. Using Java's object-oriented principles, the book makes it easy to learn prevalent design patterns such as iterator, observer, strategy, and singleton, which are commonly used in production-level code.
Topics covered:
- Creation patterns (Singleton, factory method and abstract factory method)
- Structural patterns (Adapter, Facade, Proxy, Decorator)
- Behavior patterns (strategy, observer, iterator, state, template method)
- Composite patterns
- Application architectures and MVC pattern
2. Enterprise application architecture patterns
Author: Martin Fowler
Link: Enterprise Application Architecture Patterns
For those looking for a deeper dive into design patterns, this book is a great resource. It addresses complex design pattern concepts theoretically, making it a valuable reference guide whenever you're stuck on a design choice. It covers similar topics to the Head First book, but goes into more depth (detailed explanations and UML diagrams), making it a great resource for software engineers looking for a comprehensive understanding of design patterns.
Topics covered:
- Layered architectures
- concurrence
- Domain logic and relational databases
- Web Presentation
- Distributive Systems
- Design patterns
3. Clean architecture
Author: Roberto C. Martin
Link: clean architecture
This book, written by the renowned Uncle Bob, is part of his acclaimed Clean Code series. He writes from the perspective of a software architect and shares his insights into the decisions he makes when designing a reliable and scalable system. He emphasizes the importance of independence, decoupling programming choices from specific databases, tools, and languages, making it a must-read for any software developer looking to improve their skills.
Topics covered:
- Programming paradigms (structured, object-oriented, functional)
- SOLID design principles
- Component principles (cohesion, coupling, reuse, closure)
- Architectural principles
4. Data-intensive application design
Author: Martin Kleppmann
Link: Designing data-intensive applications
Another personal recommendation and one of the most detailed books on system design. It covers in depth the fundamental principles behind system design and explains why things work the way they do. The book is divided into three main parts: data systems fundamentals, distributed data, and derived data. The first part explores the basic foundations of data storage systems, query languages, and retrieval methods for large-scale systems. The second part focuses on the development of distributed systems, emphasizing the importance of consistent systems. The final part focuses on batch processing and stream processing of large-scale data systems.
Topics covered:
- Data models and query languages
- Storage and retrieval
- Replication and transaction systems
- Distributed systems
- Consistency
- Batch processing
- Stream processing
5. System design interview
Author: Alex Xu
Link: amazon.com/System-Design-Interview-insiders-Second/dp/B08CMF2CQF” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>System Design Interview
Lastly, systems design is an important part of job interviews at major technology companies, including MAANG. This book by Google engineer Alex Xu is a popular interview preparation material that covers a wide range of topics. It provides a 4-step framework for addressing system design interview questions and presents detailed solutions for 16 real-world applications, accompanied by diagrams. Additionally, it explains the design decisions behind major systems like twitter, Google, and YouTube.
Topics covered:
- Interview Process Overview
- Framework for the interview process
- System design fundamentals (caching, databases, partitioning, load balancing)
- Architectural Techniques (Monolithic, Microservices, Serverless)
- Case studies (web crawler design, chat system, YouTube, Google Drive, etc.)
Ending
If you are a beginner and don't know where to start, these books are your go-to resources to prepare for your next systems design interview. From covering the basic concepts behind data systems to the highly detailed decisions behind popular software systems, these books cover it all. If you're feeling overwhelmed by the hype around system design, starting here will make it less intimidating.
Kanwal Mehreen Kanwal is a machine learning engineer and technical writer with a deep passion for data science and the intersection of ai with medicine. She is the co-author of the eBook “Maximize Productivity with ChatGPT.” As a Google Generation Scholar 2022 for APAC, she champions diversity and academic excellence. She is also recognized as a Teradata Diversity in tech Scholar, Mitacs Globalink Research Scholar, and Harvard WeCode Scholar. Kanwal is a passionate advocate for change and founded FEMCodes to empower women in STEM fields.
