Best free resources to learn system design in 2026?

Question

Interviews keep asking about scale. Where did you actually learn it — courses, books, or building things?

I understand the basics (load balancers, caching, queues) but I freeze when asked to design something end-to-end.

Arjun Dev · Answer

Freezing usually means you're memorizing architectures instead of practicing the conversation. Free combo that fixed it for me: the system-design-primer repo on GitHub for fundamentals, then record yourself designing one system per week out loud (URL shortener, chat app, news feed...). Review the recording — painful but it works. The skill is narrating trade-offs, not knowing the 'right' answer.

Best free resources to learn system design in 2026?

1 Answer