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100 Days of System Design Fundamentals

Comprehensive 100-day journey from basic distributed system concepts to designing large-scale applications. Covers scalability, reliability, and performance optimization.

Level: beginnerCreated: 1/23/2026

This plan is public and visible in the Learning Plans Library.

Prerequisites

•Basic programming knowledge
•Understanding of databases
•Networking fundamentals

Learning Outcomes

✓Design scalable distributed systems
✓Implement load balancing and caching
✓Optimize database performance
✓Handle failure scenarios gracefully
✓Architect production-ready systems

Weekly Breakdown

Week Goals

• Understand core concepts
• Learn about scalability metrics

Day 1

What is System Design

Introduction to system design principles and real-world applications.

Tasks

→Define system design
→Explore case studies

Day 2

Scalability Fundamentals

Learn horizontal vs vertical scaling approaches.

Tasks

→Study scaling strategies
→Compare trade-offs

Day 3

Performance Metrics

Understand latency, throughput, and response times.

Tasks

→Define key metrics
→Analyze system bottlenecks

Day 4

Availability and Reliability

Explore uptime, SLAs, and fault tolerance.

Tasks

→Learn SLA concepts
→Study redundancy patterns

Day 5

CAP Theorem Introduction

Understand consistency, availability, and partition tolerance.

Tasks

→Study CAP theorem
→Apply to databases

Day 6

System Components Overview

Survey common architectural building blocks.

Tasks

→Identify key components
→Map dependencies

Day 7

Design Patterns Intro

Introduction to common system design patterns.

Tasks

→Learn 3-4 basic patterns
→Create pattern reference