How to use this course + the workbook
Five minutes now saves you from wandering later. Here's the shape of the whole thing, what each asset is for, and the one habit that decides whether any of it sticks.
Chapter 0, then 10 modules. Roughly 95 short decks, 9 to 11 hours
| Part | Theme | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Part I | Foundations | the trade-off axes everything else is built on |
| Part II | Data | storage, replication, partitioning, consistency in practice |
| Part III | Communication | sync vs async, queues, APIs, how services talk |
| Part IV | Architecture | assembling the pieces into a coherent system |
| Part V | Production | scale, failure, observability, the operational reality |
| Part VI | Capstone | worked end-to-end designs that tie it together |
Each deck is one idea. That's deliberate: short enough to finish in a coffee break, focused enough to remember.
Each asset does a different job. Use them differently
- Decks (~95) The teaching. Watch or step through at your pace. One idea each.
- 12 cheat sheets One-page reference PDFs. For fast recall before an interview or a review.
- 6 projects / ADRs The graded workbook. What you produce yourself. This is where it sticks.
- 8 worked designs Full systems reasoned end to end. The capstone payoff, the method at full length.
Decks teach, cheat sheets remind, worked designs show the method whole, and the projects are where you actually change.
A deck isn't a video. Drive it
The E drawer is the secret weapon: it's not extra reading, it's how you'd say the idea when someone asks you to defend it.
In order for the first pass. The axes compound
- First pass: in order Go start to finish. Each axis builds on the ones before it; skip ahead and later lessons assume ideas you haven't met yet.
- After that: reference Once the base is in, jump anywhere. Pull a single deck before a review, a cheat sheet before an interview. It's yours to raid.
"The axes compound" is literal: latency ↔ throughput only makes full sense after consistency ↔ availability. Order is a feature, not a formality.
After each module, do the project. Don't just watch
- Passive review builds recognition, "oh right, I've seen that." The interview and the design review need production: reasoning it out from a blank page. Only the projects train that, because only they make you generate instead of recognise.
If you do one thing differently because of this deck, make it this: finish the module, then produce the artifact before moving on. That single habit is most of the result.
A study loop that actually compounds
1 Watch the module's decks in order
Step through, press E on the ones you'd struggle to explain, annotate the diagrams. One sitting per idea.
2 Explain one idea out loud
Pick the hardest deck and say the trade-off to a rubber duck, using the E-drawer structure. If you can't, rewatch that one.
3 Do the project from blank
Produce the design or ADR yourself. Struggle is the point; it's the muscle the module was building.
4 Keep the cheat sheet handy
File it for the day you need fast recall. On later passes, the sheet alone re-loads the whole module.
Know the shape, drive the decks, and do the projects. Then it sticks
The shape: Chapter 0 plus 10 modules across six parts, Foundations → Data → Communication → Architecture → Production → Capstone. One idea per deck.
Four assets: decks teach, 12 cheat sheets remind, 8 worked designs show it whole, 6 projects are where it sticks.
The path: in order for the first pass because the axes compound, then use the whole thing as reference. And press E to hear how to say each idea.
Next: 0.3 · The Staff mindset: "it depends" is the answer, the frame every axis after it hangs on.