I'm a software engineering student who's working on a personal project to build a web app. I want to make sure I gain as much practical experience as possible, especially when it comes to best practices in system design. Although I've done quite a bit of coding already, I feel like I skipped over the system design phase, and I'm eager to improve this aspect of my project.
So far, I've created a domain model diagram that outlines the entities and their relationships, along with a high-level software architecture diagram that shows the flow from the website to the load balancer, web server, database, and so forth. I understand that this might be enough for a small hobby project, but I'm interested in learning more. I'm happy to create additional diagrams just for the sake of learning. What other diagrams, documents, or steps should I include in the system design phase? I'd also love to hear from industry professionals about what is typically done during this stage of design, along with any relevant feedback or resources.
1 Answer
You've made a solid start! I recommend checking out YouTube for "system design interview examples"—you're likely to find popular projects like designing Twitter or Reddit. These examples will give you insights into common components used in high-scale web applications. From there, you can discern what's applicable to your project.
Thanks! I've already viewed some of those videos for guidance on my system architecture. They've been quite helpful, but I'm curious if there's more I should consider. I guess the depth of design really depends on the project's size and how much time I want to invest in that before jumping into coding.