A standalone module
System design for the technical PM
How real systems are designed at scale — from rate limiters to stock exchanges — with the architecture, tradeoffs, and failure modes that shape product decisions.
How real systems are designed at scale — from rate limiters to stock exchanges. This track covers the architecture, tradeoffs, and failure modes that shape product decisions.
System design for the technical PM
Foundations → building blocks → systems · 28 real-world systems across eight lessons
This track covers the architecture, tradeoffs, and failure modes that shape product decisions.
Foundations
Scaling
Estimation
Framework
Building blocks
Rate limiting
Consistent hashing
KV stores
Unique IDs
Systems
Web-scale
Real-time
Storage
Location
Data infra
Transactional
Every lesson in this track follows the same shape:
- TL;DR — the system in a paragraph, the core tradeoff, the scale.
- 🎯 For the technical PM — why it matters to the product, what it changes in your decisions, the sharp question to ask your eng team, and the product risk if you ignore it.
- Mental model — the one diagram or analogy that makes the system click.
- Mechanics — how it actually works: components, data flow, protocols.
- Tradeoffs & decisions — named tradeoffs with costs.
- Failure modes — how it breaks in production.
- Practitioner checklist — what to verify before you ship or bet on this architecture.
This track covers 28 real-world systems across eight lessons, grouped by the kind of problem they solve.
Connects to other tracks
- The technical product sense track teaches you how to read systems. This track teaches you how they're designed.
- The AI engineering modules show what's different when LLMs are in the loop — caching, isolation, cost. This track shows the distributed-systems foundations everything rests on.
- The agentic AI track uses message queues, event sourcing, and state machines from this track as agent infrastructure.
The lessons
- Foundations & framework — scaling from zero to millions, back-of-envelope estimation, and the four-step system design framework
- Core building blocks — rate limiting, consistent hashing, distributed key-value stores, and unique ID generation
- Web-scale services — URL shortener, web crawler, notification system, and news feed
- Real-time systems — chat system, search autocomplete, and video streaming platforms
- Storage & sync — cloud file storage and S3-like object storage
- Location & geo services — proximity service, nearby friends, and mapping/navigation
- Data infrastructure — distributed message queues, metrics monitoring, ad click aggregation, and email service
- Transactional & financial systems — hotel reservation, gaming leaderboard, payment system, digital wallet, and stock exchange
📌 Close out the module: Recap & real-world examples
The lessons
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