System Design Interview

Sixteen real system design problems, each walked through step by step with clear diagrams and practical solutions. Alex Xu’s guide is the most popular book for engineers preparing for system design interviews, and it works equally well as a reference for everyday architecture decisions.

Why Read This

Where Kleppmann gives you deep principles, Xu gives you applied practice. Each chapter tackles a real design problem: design a URL shortener, design a chat system, design a news feed, design YouTube. For each one, Xu walks through the requirements, the high-level design, the detailed component design, and the trade-offs, exactly as you would in an interview or a real architecture review.

The book is more practical and more accessible than DDIA. It is the book to read when you need to solve a specific design problem rather than build foundational understanding. Together with DDIA, it covers both the why and the how of system design.

What to Expect

Sixteen self-contained chapters, each covering one design problem. Clear diagrams (188 in total). Accessible writing that assumes basic engineering knowledge but not distributed systems expertise. Shorter and more immediately applicable than DDIA.