Engineering / System Design
System design is about understanding the bigger picture. It connects business requirements, application architecture, databases, communication patterns, infrastructure, and operational concerns into a coherent system.
System architecture
Select any connected component to explore its role in the architecture.
A system-wide perspective
A system is more than a collection of services. Its architecture emerges from the relationships between requirements, components, data, infrastructure and operational decisions.
Areas of focus
The key areas I consider when breaking down problems and designing software systems.
Translating business requirements into technical decisions. Understanding functional and non-functional requirements before choosing technologies or designing components.
Key concepts
Choosing appropriate architectural styles and defining boundaries that keep applications maintainable, extensible, and aligned with business needs.
Key concepts
Moving from system-level components to implementation details, defining how services, APIs, data models, and individual components work together.
Key concepts
Designing systems that can handle increasing workloads while remaining available, responsive, and resilient to component failures.
Key concepts
Making decisions about data ownership, synchronous and asynchronous communication, consistency, and reliable processing across services.
Key concepts
Considering security, observability, deployment, and operational requirements as part of the architecture rather than treating them as afterthoughts.
Key concepts
My perspective
I approach system design by first understanding the problem, identifying constraints, and evaluating trade-offs. The goal is not to build the most complicated architecture, but to build a system that solves the problem reliably and can evolve over time.