Journal
Blog
Plain-language essays on system design, distributed systems and the habits behind senior interviews. New posts land in /blog.
The 8 Questions of System Design
Every system design interview is the same eight questions wearing different clothes. Learn them once and you can design anything.
Kafka Without the Hype
Producer, topic, partition, broker, consumer group, offset. Six words. The whole mental model is built from them — here's how, with no marketing fog.
SOLID Is About Production, Not Purity
Stop memorizing the letters. Each SOLID principle is the scar of a production incident. Learn the incidents.
The Cache Stampede and How to Never Have It Again
A cache that misses at the wrong moment can melt your database. Single-flight is the fix — and it's embarrassingly simple.
CAP, PACELC, and Saying It Out Loud
CAP is two-sentence short, and that's why everyone misuses it. Add PACELC and you get a sentence you can actually defend in an interview.
Designing for Failure: The Five Things That WILL Break
Your HLD will break in five predictable ways. Here's the pre-mortem list — design the failure handling before the interviewer asks.