Why I Wrote Yet Another System Design Book (And Why You’ll Thank Me Later)

Tired of system design books that bore you to death or leave you clueless?

Curious how I turned my Amazon petabyte-scale secrets into a book you can’t put down?

Listen up.

The world didn’t need another system design book.

Shelves are already stuffed with dry, jargon-filled tomes that either overwhelm you with complexity or skip the part where you actually get it.

So why the hell did I write System Design Foundations? Because I was sick of watching smart people—like you—stumble over the same damn problems I’ve spent decades solving. I’ve been mentoring tech pros for years, interviewed thousands at Amazon, and built systems that chew through petabytes of data like it’s breakfast.

And here’s the truth: most books out there suck at teaching this stuff. They’re either written for PhDs who already know it or leave you stranded without a map.

I wrote this book to fix that—and here’s why it’s worth your time. And I call it "System Design Foundations for Humans". Because why not? It is written for humans, exactly the way they talk and communicate.

The Problem: No One’s Teaching the Basics Right

Picture this: you’re a fresh computer science grad, diploma in hand, ready to crush it. You can write code in your sleep—loops, functions, all that jazz.

But then someone says, “Design an app for a million users.” Blank stare. Panic sets in. You’ve got no clue where to start because college taught you how to build a toy car, not a freaking highway system. I’ve seen it over and over mentoring newbies—they’re brilliant at the small stuff but lost when it scales. And it’s not their fault.

The books out there? They’re either too advanced—assuming you’re already a system design ninja—or too vague, leaving you with buzzwords but no backbone.

I’ve spent years at Amazon, wrestling with applications that process terabytes daily—think millions of jobs churning through data bigger than your entire Netflix watch history.

I’ve interviewed thousands—grads, mid-level devs, even senior folks—and the gap’s always the same: no one taught them the fundamentals of system design. Not the “here’s a fancy algorithm” kind—the “how do I make this thing grow, stay up, and not explode” kind.

That’s criminal. So I decided to stop whining and start writing.

The Spark: Mentoring Showed Me the Truth

Here’s where it hit me.

I’ve been mentoring pros for career growth and interview prep—folks just like you, hungry to level up. Some were fresh grads, eyes wide, drowning in imposter syndrome. Others were mid-career, stuck because they couldn’t crack the system design nut. I’d sit with them, break down problems—like “How do you store a billion URLs?”—and watch their faces light up when I used a pizza shop analogy instead of some sterile diagram.

They’d go from “I’m lost” to “Oh, that’s it?” in minutes. That’s when I knew: the problem isn’t them—it’s the tools they’re given.

Most system design books are like handing a newbie a 500-page manual on quantum physics and saying, “Figure it out.”

Or they’re so high-level you’re left nodding at “scalability is good” without knowing how.

I’ve built systems that handle petabyte-scale chaos—real-life monsters processing data you can’t even imagine. I’ve grilled candidates on everything from load balancers to failover plans. And I kept thinking: why isn’t there a book that starts where these folks are—zero to hero, no BS, just the good stuff? That’s why I wrote this one.

The Fix: Analogies, Examples, and No Boring Crap

Let’s be real—tech books can be a snooze fest.

Pages of theory, no soul, just endless terms like “sharding” or “replication” with zero context. I’m not here to bore you to death.

I wrote System Design Foundations with tons of analogies and examples because that’s how you actually learn. Why talk about servers when I can show you a lemonade stand growing from one table to a city-wide chain? Why drone on about databases when we can imagine a pizza shop juggling orders? These aren’t just cute stories—they’re how I’ve explained this stuff to mentees for years, and they stick.

This book takes everything I’ve learned—decades at Amazon, thousands of interviews, petabyte-scale systems—and boils it down to what matters: the fundamentals.

How do you start a design?

How do you grow it?

How do you keep it running when the world’s watching?

It’s not about fancy jargon—it’s about giving you a mental map to build systems that scale, stay tough, run fast, and lock out hackers. From picking the right database to handling a million users crashing your app, I’ve stripped it to the essentials and made it fun.

No fluff, no filler—just the meat.

The Payoff: You’ll Win Where Others Lose

Here’s the deal: system design isn’t some mystical art for geniuses—it’s a skill anyone can learn with the right guide.

Most folks crash and burn in interviews because they don’t know the “ceremony”—ask questions, sketch a plan, nail the details.

They guess, fumble, and pray. Not you. This book hands you the playbook I’ve used to mentor grads into rockstars and prep pros for Amazon-level grilling. You’ll walk into that interview room—or Zoom call—and own it, step by step, while others sweat bullets.

And it’s not just about interviews. This is your foundation to build real apps—ones that don’t buckle under pressure or leave you scrambling when they grow.

I’ve seen the difference it makes: mentees who once stared blankly at “design a URL shortener” now confidently map out systems like pros. That’s the power of starting simple and building up, with examples you can actually picture.

So, why another system design book?

Because you deserve better than boring or confusing. I wrote this with my Amazon scars, mentoring heart, and a pile of analogies to make it click. It’s not just a book—it’s your ticket to stop guessing and start winning. Grab it, read it, use it. You’ll thank me later when you’re crushing interviews or building your own empire.

Let’s do this!

The book will be available on Amazon in March 2025.