System Design and Software Architecture Roadmap — Fundamentals to Advanced

1. Prerequisites

1.1 Software engineering fundamentals

1.2 Backend fundamentals

1.3 Infrastructure fundamentals

1.4 Data fundamentals

1.5 Communication fundamentals

2. Architecture Thinking

2.1 Architecture fundamentals

2.2 Architectural drivers

2.3 Quality attributes

2.4 Architectural trade-offs

2.5 Architecture decision-making

2.6 Architectural thinking skills

3. Requirements and Constraints

3.1 Functional requirements

3.2 Non-functional requirements

3.3 Capacity requirements

3.4 Availability and recovery requirements

3.5 Security and compliance requirements

3.6 Constraints

4. System Design Interview Method

4.1 Problem clarification

4.2 Back-of-the-envelope estimation

4.3 High-level design

4.4 Data model design

4.5 API design

4.6 Deep dives

4.7 Trade-off communication

5. Core Architectural Styles

5.1 Layered architecture

5.2 Clean architecture

5.3 Hexagonal architecture

5.4 Onion architecture

5.5 Domain-driven design architecture

5.6 Event-driven architecture

5.7 Microservices architecture

5.8 Modular monolith

5.9 Serverless architecture

5.10 Space-based architecture

6. Architectural Patterns

6.1 Structural patterns

6.2 Distributed system patterns

6.3 Data patterns

6.4 Integration patterns

6.5 Cloud patterns

6.6 Reliability patterns

7. Distributed Systems Fundamentals

7.1 Distributed system concepts

7.2 CAP and PACELC

7.3 Consistency models

7.4 Time and ordering

7.5 Consensus

7.6 Replication

7.7 Partitioning

7.8 Distributed failure modes

8. Scalability

8.1 Scalability fundamentals

8.2 Application scaling

8.3 Database scaling

8.4 Cache scaling

8.5 Queue scaling

8.6 Frontend and edge scaling

9. Performance Engineering

9.1 Performance fundamentals

9.2 Latency analysis

9.3 Performance optimization

9.4 Load testing

9.5 Capacity planning

9.6 Queueing theory awareness

10. Reliability and Resilience

10.1 Reliability fundamentals

10.2 Failure handling

10.3 High availability

10.4 Disaster recovery

10.5 Chaos engineering

10.6 Incident response

11. Data Architecture

11.1 Data modeling

11.2 Database selection

11.3 Transactional architecture

11.4 Analytical architecture

11.5 Data consistency

11.6 Data migration

11.7 Data governance

12. Caching Architecture

12.1 Cache fundamentals

12.2 Cache patterns

12.3 Cache invalidation

12.4 Cache failure modes

12.5 Cache technologies

13. Messaging and Event Streaming

13.1 Messaging fundamentals

13.2 Message delivery guarantees

13.3 Queue-based architecture

13.4 Event streaming architecture

13.5 Event design

13.6 Messaging technologies

14. API and Integration Architecture

14.1 API styles

14.2 REST API design

14.3 gRPC architecture

14.4 GraphQL architecture

14.5 API gateway architecture

14.6 Integration patterns

15. Security Architecture

15.1 Security principles

15.2 Identity and access

15.3 Application security architecture

15.4 Data security

15.5 Infrastructure security

15.6 Security operations

16. Observability Architecture

16.1 Observability fundamentals

16.2 Logging architecture

16.3 Metrics architecture

16.4 Tracing architecture

16.5 Alerting architecture

16.6 Observability tools

17. Cloud Architecture

17.1 Cloud fundamentals

17.2 Compute architecture

17.3 Cloud networking

17.4 Cloud storage

17.5 Cloud-native architecture

17.6 Cloud cost architecture

18. Microservices Architecture

18.1 Microservice fundamentals

18.2 Service decomposition

18.3 Inter-service communication

18.4 Distributed data management

18.5 Microservice operations

18.6 Microservice anti-patterns

19. Monolith and Modular Architecture

19.1 Monolith fundamentals

19.2 Modular monolith

19.3 Monolith modernization

19.4 When to choose monolith

19.5 When to choose microservices

20. Frontend and Client Architecture

20.1 Frontend architecture fundamentals

20.2 Web performance architecture

20.3 Frontend state architecture

20.4 Micro-frontend architecture

20.5 Mobile client architecture

21. Search, Recommendation, and AI System Architecture

21.1 Search architecture

21.2 Recommendation architecture

21.3 AI application architecture

21.4 RAG architecture

21.5 Agentic architecture

22. DevOps, Platform, and Deployment Architecture

22.1 CI/CD architecture

22.2 Deployment strategies

22.3 Infrastructure as Code

22.4 Platform engineering

22.5 Kubernetes architecture

22.6 Release engineering

23. Enterprise Architecture and Governance

23.1 Enterprise architecture fundamentals

23.2 Architecture frameworks

23.3 Architecture governance

23.4 Architecture documentation

23.5 Architecture review

24. Architecture Documentation and Diagramming

24.1 Documentation principles

24.2 C4 model

24.3 ADRs

24.4 Diagrams

24.5 Diagramming tools

25. Cost Architecture and FinOps

25.1 Cost fundamentals

25.2 Cost modeling

25.3 Cost optimization

25.4 FinOps practices

26. Architecture Migration and Evolution

26.1 Legacy modernization

26.2 Migration patterns

26.3 Database migration architecture

26.4 Cloud migration

26.5 Evolutionary architecture

27. Architecture Evaluation

27.1 Evaluation methods

27.2 Architecture scenarios

27.3 Fitness functions

27.4 Production readiness

28. Common System Design Problems

28.2 Data and storage systems

28.3 Communication systems

28.4 Commerce and financial systems

28.5 Infrastructure systems

28.6 AI and search systems

29. Standards, Frameworks, and Current Ecosystem Awareness

29.1 Architecture standards and frameworks

29.2 Cloud architecture frameworks

29.3 Reliability frameworks

29.4 Security standards and guidance

29.5 Cloud-native ecosystem

29.6 Architecture tooling

30. Learning Path

30.1 Phase 1 — Fundamentals

30.2 Phase 2 — System design basics

30.3 Phase 3 — Distributed systems

30.4 Phase 4 — Software architecture

30.5 Phase 5 — Production architecture

30.6 Phase 6 — Enterprise and governance

30.7 Phase 7 — Advanced architecture

31. Practical Projects

31.1 Project 1 — URL Shortener

31.2 Project 2 — Notification Platform

31.3 Project 3 — Chat System

31.4 Project 4 — E-Commerce Platform

31.5 Project 5 — Event Streaming Platform

31.6 Project 6 — Multi-Tenant SaaS Platform

31.7 Project 7 — Observability Platform

31.8 Project 8 — RAG AI Assistant Architecture

31.9 Project 9 — Kubernetes Platform

31.10 Project 10 — Legacy Modernization Plan

31.11 Project 11 — High-Scale Rate Limiter

31.12 Project 12 — Global File Storage System

32. Competency Checklist

32.1 Junior system design competency

32.2 Mid-level system design competency

32.3 Senior architecture competency

32.4 Staff/principal architecture competency

32.5 Production readiness competency