Handbook
System Design Handbook
HLD, LLD, case studies and interview prep, end to end — seven volumes, 170 pages.
- 7
- volumes
- 170
- pages
- 163
- page topics
- A4
- print-ready
- Who it is for
- Freshers to senior engineers preparing for system-design and low-level-design interview rounds.
- Each page has
- a diagram, how it works, trade-offs, production rules, common mistakes and interview questions.
- Format
- A4 notebook pages. Read them in the browser, print them or save as PDF.
- Updates
- Lifetime access. New and revised volumes appear in your library free.
01The volumes
Buy them together, or one at a time.
Each volume stands on its own. The handbook price covers all of them, and any volume added later.
Volume 1 · 22 pages
Foundations
Estimation, networking, HTTP and DNS, API styles, load balancing, CDNs, availability, CAP and consistency models.
Volume 2 · 22 pages
Data & Storage
SQL vs NoSQL, data modeling, indexes, transactions, replication, sharding, caching, Redis, search and CDC.
Volume 3 · 22 pages
Distributed Systems
Queues and Kafka, delivery semantics, distributed transactions, consensus, locking, resilience, rate limiting and stream processing.
Volume 4 · 20 pages
Architecture, Security & Ops
Microservices, auth and OAuth, observability, deployments, multi-region, disaster recovery, multi-tenancy and LLM systems.
Volume 5 · 26 pages
Case Studies I
Classic designs, two pages each: URL shortener, Pastebin, rate limiter, key-value store, ID generator and more.
Volume 6 · 34 pages
Case Studies II
Advanced designs, two pages each: YouTube and Netflix, Uber vs Zomato, BookMyShow, UPI, Google Docs, Kafka and ChatGPT serving.
Volume 7 · 24 pages
Low-Level Design & Interview Mastery
The LLD round, SOLID, design patterns, concurrency, classic LLD cases in Python, and 114 interview questions.
02What is inside
Every page, by topic.
163 page topics across 7 volumes, taken from the books' own page titles.
Vol 1 · Foundations22 pages · 21 topics
- 01How to use this book
- 02What is System Design?
- 03Interview Framework
- 04Numbers to Know
- 05Estimation
- 06How the Internet Works
- 07TCP vs UDP vs QUIC
- 08HTTP & TLS
- 09DNS
- 10API Styles
- 11Real-time Communication
- 12API Design
- 13Proxies & API Gateway
- 14Load Balancing
- 15CDN & Edge
- 16Scalability
- 17Availability
- 18Latency & Throughput
- 19CAP & PACELC
- 20Consistency Models
- 21Vol 1 Cheat Sheet
Vol 2 · Data & Storage22 pages · 21 topics
- 01Choosing Storage
- 02SQL vs NoSQL
- 03NoSQL Families
- 04Data Modeling
- 05Indexes
- 06Special Indexes
- 07Transactions
- 08Storage Engines
- 09Replication
- 10Multi-leader & Leaderless
- 11Sharding
- 12Consistent Hashing
- 13Caching
- 14Cache Problems
- 15Redis
- 16Object Storage
- 17Search Systems
- 18Warehouses & Lakes
- 19Schema Evolution
- 20Change Data Capture
- 21Vol 2 Cheat Sheet
Vol 3 · Distributed Systems22 pages · 21 topics
- 01Why It's Hard
- 02Message Queues
- 03Kafka
- 04Delivery Semantics
- 05Event-Driven
- 06Distributed Transactions
- 07Consensus
- 08Coordination
- 09Time & Ordering
- 10Unique IDs
- 11Distributed Locks
- 12Failure Detection
- 13Resilience
- 14Rate Limiting
- 15Overload
- 16Probabilistic DS
- 17Batch Processing
- 18Stream Processing
- 19Jobs & Workflows
- 20Data Integrity
- 21Vol 3 Cheat Sheet
Vol 4 · Architecture, Security & Ops20 pages · 19 topics
- 01Monolith vs Micro
- 02Microservice Patterns
- 03Service Communication
- 04Containers & Serverless
- 05Authentication
- 06OAuth & OIDC
- 07Authorization
- 08Security Essentials
- 09Observability
- 10Deployments
- 11Config & IaC
- 12Multi-Region
- 13Disaster Recovery
- 14Capacity & Cost
- 15Multi-Tenancy
- 16Mobile & Frontend
- 17AI / LLM Systems
- 18Compliance & Privacy
- 19Vol 4 Cheat Sheet
Vol 5 · Case Studies I26 pages · 25 topics
- 01URL Shortener
- 02URL Shortener · deep dive
- 03Pastebin
- 04Pastebin · deep dive
- 05Rate Limiter
- 06Rate Limiter · deep dive
- 07Key-Value Store
- 08Key-Value Store · deep dive
- 09Unique IDs
- 10Unique IDs · deep dive
- 11Web Crawler
- 12Web Crawler · deep dive
- 13Notifications
- 14Notifications · deep dive
- 15News Feed
- 16News Feed · deep dive
- 17Twitter Timeline
- 18Twitter · deep dive
- 19Chat (WhatsApp)
- 20Chat · deep dive
- 21Autocomplete
- 22Autocomplete · deep dive
- 23Instagram
- 24Instagram · deep dive
- 25Vol 5 Cheat Sheet
Vol 6 · Case Studies II34 pages · 33 topics
- 01YouTube / Netflix
- 02YouTube · deep dive
- 03Google Drive / Dropbox
- 04Dropbox · deep dive
- 05Uber / Ola
- 06Uber · deep dive
- 07Proximity (Yelp)
- 08Proximity · deep dive
- 09BookMyShow
- 10BookMyShow · deep dive
- 11Hotel reservation
- 12Hotels · deep dive
- 13Payment system
- 14Payments · deep dive
- 15Digital wallet
- 16Wallet · deep dive
- 17E-commerce
- 18E-commerce · deep dive
- 19Google Docs
- 20Google Docs · deep dive
- 21Message queue (Kafka)
- 22Kafka · deep dive
- 23Metrics & monitoring
- 24Metrics · deep dive
- 25Ad click aggregation
- 26Ad clicks · deep dive
- 27Leaderboard / top-K
- 28Leaderboard · deep dive
- 29Stock exchange
- 30Exchange · deep dive
- 31LLM chat (ChatGPT)
- 32LLM chat · deep dive
- 33Vol 6 Cheat Sheet
Vol 7 · Low-Level Design & Interview Mastery24 pages · 23 topics
- 01LLD in interviews
- 02OOP + SOLID
- 03Patterns I · creational
- 04Patterns II · structural
- 05Patterns III · behavioural
- 06Concurrency
- 07LLD · Parking lot
- 08LLD · Elevator
- 09LLD · LRU cache
- 10LLD · Rate limiter
- 11LLD · BookMyShow
- 12LLD · Splitwise
- 13LLD · Chess / tic-tac-toe
- 14LLD · Vending machine
- 15Trade-off master table
- 16Bottleneck playbook
- 17Top 60 Qs · 1–15
- 18Top 60 Qs · 16–30
- 19Top 60 Qs · 31–45
- 20Top 60 Qs · 46–60
- 21Mistakes + scoring
- 224-week study plan
- 23Final cheat sheet
03Around it
Learn it, look it up, then keep the handbook.
The same subject is on the site as a course and a cheatsheet. The handbook is the printable version for revision.
- AWS Production HandbookRunning real workloads on AWS — one page per service, plus a second volume on EKS, events, identity, data and AI.
- Python HandbookPure Python from core language and OOP to internals, concurrency, data and AI — four volumes for freshers to 5-year engineers.
- FastAPI HandbookFrom ASGI and Pydantic to auth, async databases, queues, production and architecture — six volumes, 135 pages, every snippet run.
- AI Full-Stack HandbookML foundations, LLMs and RAG, agents, inference, evaluation, security, MLOps and AI system design — seven volumes, 153 pages.
- Django HandbookDjango from request lifecycle to production architecture — ORM and PostgreSQL, auth and DRF, async and Celery, operations, design and interviews. Six volumes, 143 pages, every snippet executed.
?Questions
Before you start
- What exactly do I get?
- Access to the handbook in your library: every page, readable in the browser and printable as PDF. You pay once; there is no subscription.
- Can I read before I buy?
- Yes. Every volume has free sample pages. Sign in with a free account, open any volume, and the first pages are yours to read.
- Will I get updates?
- Yes. When a volume is revised, or a new volume is added to a handbook you own, it appears in your library at no cost.
- How do I pay?
- UPI, cards and netbanking through Razorpay. You enter an email; sign in with it to read.
- Refunds?
- Digital goods are not refundable once the full book is opened. If a file is broken or not as described, write to us within 7 days and we will fix it or refund you.
Read a few pages first.
Sample pages are free with an account.