Distributed Systems Design — Full Course Syllabus

Core concepts for designing scalable, resilient backend systems — load balancing, sharding, fault tolerance, and event-driven architecture.

1. 1. Microservices ArchitectureAn architectural style that structures an application as a collection of loosely coupled services.
2. 2. Load BalancingThe process of distributing network or application traffic across multiple servers.
3. 3. Caching StrategiesTechniques to store copies of files or data in a cache to reduce access time and improve performance.
4. 4. API Rate LimitingA technique to control the amount of incoming requests to an API to prevent overload.
5. 5. Horizontal ScalingAdding more machines to a pool to handle increased load, as opposed to vertical scaling.
6. 6. ContainerizationThe use of containers to package applications and their dependencies for consistent deployment.
7. 7. Monitoring and LoggingTracking application performance and logging events for troubleshooting and analysis.
8. 8. API GatewayA server that acts as an API front-end, receiving requests and routing them to the appropriate backend service.
9. 9. Database ShardingA method of distributing data across multiple databases to improve performance and scalability.
10. 10. Service DiscoveryThe process of automatically detecting devices and services on a network.
11. 11. Fault ToleranceThe ability of a system to continue operating properly in the event of a failure of some of its components.
12. 12. Data ReplicationThe process of sharing information across multiple databases to ensure consistency and availability.
13. 13. Event-Driven ArchitectureA software architecture pattern promoting the production, detection, consumption of, and reaction to events.