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System Design Explainer

36 systems · 36 components · 27 concepts

How are large systems built?

Interactive architectures for YouTube, Uber, Amazon and more — switch between AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and open-source tools, and follow every request hop by hop.

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What you can do

  • Switch clouds

    Relabel every component for AWS, Google Cloud, Azure or open source in one click.

  • Play walkthroughs

    Follow a request hop by hop — upload a video, book a seat, pay a merchant.

  • Inspect components

    Every building block with its options per provider, pitfalls and where it's used.

  • Learn the patterns

    Caching, sharding, fan-out, sagas, idempotency — explained and linked to real designs.

Learning paths

Each path builds on the patterns from the one before. Progress is saved in this browser.

All systems

36 of 36 systems