The Learn System Design podcast delves into the intricacies of designing a parking lot system, a topic often encountered in technical interviews, especially at large tech companies. The host, Ben Kitchell, begins by providing context from previous discussions, particularly regarding the importance of atomicity and redundancy in system design. He emphasizes the need for a reliable and scalable architecture that can handle real-time reservations and payments, illustrating the challenges of maintai...
Jan 28, 2025•39 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text URL Shortener Designs Unlock the secrets to designing a high-performing URL shortener system in our latest episode with Ben at the helm! Get ready to master the essentials that transform a simple idea into a robust tool, essential for platforms with strict character limits like Twitter. We'll walk you through the core elements of creating effective short URLs, from ensuring seamless redirects to setting expiration dates tailored for various industries like marketing firms. Di...
Jan 07, 2025•34 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Web Crawler Designs Can a simple idea like building a web crawler teach you the intricacies of system design? Join me, Ben Kitchell, as we uncover this fascinating intersection. Returning from a brief pause, I'm eager to guide you through the essential building blocks of a web crawler, from queuing seed URLs to parsing new links autonomously. These basic functionalities are your gateway to creating a minimum viable product or acing that system design interview. You’ll gain in...
Dec 17, 2024•32 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Unlock the secrets of database models and elevate your system design skills with Ben Kitchell on the Learn System Design podcast. What if mastering the art of database modeling could transform your approach to system design interviews and real-world applications? Explore the intricacies of relational data models, where the simplicity of a 2D matrix of rows and columns meets the complexity of larger datasets. Discover how primary and foreign keys form the backbone of relational dat...
Nov 19, 2024•27 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Unlock the secrets of API design and elevate your system design skills with our latest episode featuring me, Benny Kitchell. Explore the pivotal role APIs play in system design interviews and real-world development, where they act like the seamless communication between waiters, cooks, and customers in a restaurant. Learn how to craft APIs that are tailored to both internal and external developers by understanding their specific needs and objectives, ensuring a smooth and efficien...
Nov 05, 2024•35 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Master the art of system design as Benny Ketchel guides us through the essential skills every senior tech candidate needs to excel, starting with capacity estimates. By the end of this episode, you'll be able to navigate the complexities of bandwidth and data size without getting bogged down in unnecessary arithmetic. We explore how to think like industry leaders at Netflix, Google, and Instagram, focusing on rough estimates, worst-case scenarios, and the use of metric prefix...
Oct 15, 2024•26 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Can a simple delay really cost a company millions? We kick off season two of the Learn System Design podcast by exploring this and more. I'm Benny Kitchell, your host, and after a refreshing hiatus, I'm excited to bring you a fresh take on system design interviews and real-world applications. We start with the fundamentals of functional requirements using a relatable example: a music streaming app like Spotify. Discover how to align core functionalities such as song play...
Oct 04, 2024•29 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Support the show Dedicated to the memory of Crystal Rose. Email me at LearnSystemDesignPod@gmail.com Join the free Discord Consider supporting us on Patreon Special thanks to Aimless Orbiter for the wonderful music. Please consider giving us a rating on ITunes or wherever you listen to new episodes....
Sep 24, 2024•3 min•Ep 100•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text How does the invisible architecture of the internet keep everything running smoothly? Prepare to have your mind blown as we unravel the mysteries of the Domain Name System (DNS) in this episode of Learn System Design. We'll guide you through the intricate process of how your browser finds the correct IP address for a domain name, likening DNS to an enormous, sophisticated key-value database. Discover the essential components that make DNS work seamlessly, from DNS servers and...
Jun 24, 2024•25 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Imagine your website could handle the furious influx of a flash sale without breaking a sweat. That's the magic of load balancers, the unsung heroes of system design, which we dissect in this episode to help your services run smoothly even under the avalanche of high traffic. Together with industry experts, we unravel the mystery behind these traffic conductors, ensuring you grasp the significance of active-passive and active-active setups to avoid the dreaded single point of...
May 07, 2024•26 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Discover the secret sauce that makes software systems scalable and robust as we dissect the architecture that powers modern applications. You're about to get a masterclass in software design, where we unravel the complex world of monolithic and microservice architectures. Say goodbye to confusion around when to stick with the simplicity of a monolith and when to break free into the modular world of microservices. We'll walk you through the need for message brokers and qu...
Apr 23, 2024•31 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Unlock the full potential of your database management with our deep dive into scalability strategies that can revolutionize how you handle data growth and system performance. Jessica Ho, a sharp-minded listener, brought forth questions that led us to explore the intricate dance of read-through versus cache-aside caching. We break down when to use each technique for the utmost data consistency across varying applications. Not stopping there, we also shed light on Redis and its dual...
Apr 09, 2024•33 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Are your databases groaning under the weight of growing data? Let's unlock the secrets to seamless scaling and surgically precise indexing, ensuring your systems run like a finely tuned sports car. I'm Benny Kitchell, and this episode is your golden ticket to understanding when and how to scale your databases to meet the demands of your application's performance. We'll dissect the nuances of optimizing queries and why your first step should never be to shard, b...
Mar 12, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Embark on a time-traveling adventure with me, your host Benny Kitchell, as we chart the monumental shifts in database technology. From ancient civilizations etching their records into clay to the sophisticated graph databases of the present, this episode uncovers the pivotal moments that have shaped how we manage data. We'll delve into Edgar F. Codd's relational model revolution, understand the origins of the Hierarchical Model System, and discuss the impact of MongoDB&a...
Mar 12, 2024•34 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Embark on a journey with me, Benny Kitchell, as we chart the course through the complex waters of system design, zeroing in on the pivotal role of scalability. Imagine the chaos of a concert ticket site crashing just as sales go live; it’s a scenario I’ve lived through, and one that illustrates the high stakes of scaling. Within this episode, we dissect the anatomy of scalability, providing essential insights into how understanding both the product and user behavior is crucial for...
Feb 27, 2024•34 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Embark on an expedition into the vastness of system design with your host, Benny Kitchell, an experienced engineer whose passion for crafting scalable systems is as infectious as it is informative. Together, we'll traverse the complexities of database scaling, the subtleties of caching, and the intricacies of sharding. With foresight and expertise, I promise to arm you with the knowledge to tackle the challenges of building robust systems. As the series unfolds, anticipate en...
Feb 25, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
