Over the years, I have taken several system design courses and read countless blogs, but I often found them overloaded with boxes and arrows, focusing solely on “what” to build rather than “why” and “what problem it solves”. Very few people truly address these fundamental questions, and Arpit Bhayani is one of them.

His highly practical approach to system design goes beyond just diagrams—it cultivates the thinking process and engineering mindset essential for real-world problem-solving. Personally, I have always been obsessed with databases and their internal architecture, and this was the first time I felt a deep connection with someone who shares the same passion.

I highly recommend this course to all my peers who want to go beyond surface-level knowledge and truly understand the principles behind scalable, efficient system design.

I started as a curious developer, but over time, working in the corporate world, I lost my enthusiasm for being a great developer. We often forget why we started on this path in the first place.

This course helped me rediscover my joy in writing programs that solve real problems. It made me realise that by thinking differently and diving deeper into challenges, we can make engineering have a tremendous impact in the workplace.

I highly recommend this course to all curious developers who chose coding because they genuinely enjoyed it. It will take you back to that moment when you decided to pursue coding or computer science. It's equally valuable for those wanting to understand systems at a deeper level and clarify their fundamentals.

This will be my go-to recommended course for anyone I meet who shows true passion for coding.

First of All, I want to thank you Arpit for creating this course. I made my decision to attend this course after watching your Torrent Videos.

Now About this course, It covers both the long lost basic concepts and complex problems solved by many industry leaders in a way that actually makes sense.

What I really liked is that it’s not just about cracking tech interviews—it goes beyond that. The course helps you develop a design mindset and build a mental model to approach system design logically. Instead of just memorizing patterns, you actually learn how to think through different trade-offs and come up with the right design for a given problem.

Arpit's real-world experience makes a huge difference—the examples are practical, not just theoretical. Plus, the course really pushes you out of your comfort zone and makes you see system design from a broader perspective.

If you’re serious about mastering system design beyond just interviews, this is the course to go for!

I recently completed a System Design course, and I can confidently say it was a game-changer for my professional growth as a software developer. The course provided a perfect balance of theoretical concepts and practical applications, making even complex topics easy to understand.

Arpit's step-by-step approach to breaking down high-level system architecture into smaller, manageable components was remarkable. Concepts such as scalability, fault tolerance, load balancing, and database design were covered in depth, with real-world examples that made the learning process engaging and relatable.

What stood out the most was the focus on problem-solving and hands-on exercises. These not only deepened my understanding of system design principles but also prepared me to tackle real-world challenges with confidence.

Overall, this course exceeded my expectations and has significantly enhanced my ability to design robust and scalable systems. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to strengthen their expertise in system design, whether you’re preparing for interviews or aiming to excel in your current role.

I am usually a fan of online courses and have taken several from Coursera/Udemy. Arpit, definitely while being an engineer, is one of the exceptional teachers. We spent ample amount of time on each of the aspects of course (never rushed).

The way he brought first principle thinking for many of the systems and the curiosity to dig deeper into very complex seeming systems was a huge win. He made difficult topics simple.

If you are one of those who has hunger to learn and love to understand things deep down, I would highly recommend this course. It’s not just technical learning, it’s a course which teaches you one of the hardest skills in the computer industry: problem solving. Once you start taking it, it becomes very natural.

At the end, I also want to applaud Arpit for being so patient, humble, open-minded, curious, and super fun throughout the course. I really want to thank him for taking this initiative and being one of the teachers that the world today needs.

Everything was best. Specifically, the course was far more engaging than traditional ones because we were literally discussing and not just theory. Doing discussions gave ample amount of time to think, iterate, rethink, re-iterate, and repeat. This is the very best use of time because the amount of content to consume in limited time becomes less and the critical thinking on it increases, thereby having more output in terms of understanding.

In the world of jargons thrown around to sound smart, drawing boxes instead of going into the depth of implementation, and most importantly, calling those a system design, is absolutely unfair to a computer science engineer and the whole field of computer science.

I can't stress this enough: people boast about passing the 4 years of undergraduate degree without learning much but still get placed in decent to good companies.

The whole point of the lack of passion and enthusiasm to do something creative at a later stage in life stems from the fact that we never learn things from first principles, and the education system never helped. But then, for the most part, we don't know what we don't know.

That being said, the last 8 weeks have been absolutely amusing for understanding how to build highly scalable systems from scratch. Arpit Bhayani has done a fabulous job inspiring curiosity to dig deeper, think about implementation, learn things from first principles, and generate that enthusiasm for core computer science.

I can't love the field any more. Thank you again Arpit for instilling the curiosity at a much deeper level. I look forward to implementing those prototypes to understand the true value of the computer science research over the years.

The course was incredibly in-depth and crisp, with a strong focus on hands-on implementation. I really appreciated how practical and application-oriented the sessions were. It wasn’t just about theory; it was about doing the work.

Another unexpected bonus! It made reading Designing Data-Intensive Applications so much easier. Now, flipping through the book feels like a refreshing recap of what was taught in the cohort.

I’m glad I joined this program. I gained invaluable knowledge and skills, and being surrounded by people who knew more than me pushed me to learn even more. Even though I didn’t speak up much during Q&A's sessions, that turned out to be a blessing—I absorbed so much just by listening and doing. It reawakened my curiosity and re-engaged my mind in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Arpit's teaching style made complex topics and papers, easy to digest. He didn’t just focus on the technical aspects but also tied in perspectives from business, product management, and architecture. This holistic view broadens the understanding on what actually creates impact! Get a lot of goals and life-lessons along the way.

Highly recommend this cohort for anyone looking to level up their system design skills!

This course is truly amazing. Before enrolling, I had explored various YouTube playlists and other Udemy courses, but nothing really worked for me. I found myself getting bored as those lectures used a lot of jargon and simply presented the final design without addressing the underlying process.

What stood out in this course is how you break down every detail, especially when it comes to identifying bottlenecks and understanding what could go wrong with an initial design. Many other courses gloss over these critical points, but your approach answers the questions that matter when someone is designing from scratch. You have an incredible ability to explain concepts in a way that’s accessible, even for someone like me who’s relatively early in their career.

With just 1.5 years of experience as an SDE1, I was hesitant at first, wondering if I’d be able to keep up. But every topic you’ve covered has been crystal clear. I may take a bit longer to implement everything, but I’m confident I’ll complete it all at my own pace. Hats off to you for breaking things down so clearly and building up from the basics!

What worked best for me in this course was the way you approached the learning process. Rather than just presenting the final design, you took the time to explain every step, highlighting potential pitfalls and the reasons why a simple, intuitive solution might fail. This level of detail made it much easier to follow along and understand the "why" behind every design choice.

Additionally, your teaching method—starting from a basic design and gradually improving it while explaining each decision—was incredibly helpful. It allowed me to think critically about every phase of system design, something that other courses and resources didn’t offer. I truly appreciated how you broke everything down into digestible pieces, making it easier to grasp even for someone with limited experience. This approach kept me engaged throughout and made the learning experience far more effective.

I attended Arpit's April Cohort this year in 2024. I was looking out for some resources to help me with developing a good knowledge on designing systems. I was fortunate enough to come across your course. All the systems we discussed have built a solid foundation for me to approach any system going forward.

Be it thinking of the database schema, indexing, scaling, components, etc etc. This course has given a structured approach to my thinking process and for which I am immensely thankful for your efforts. I can see my confidence boosting up after taking this cohort as I am not afraid to tackle any design problem.

Internet has so many resources for designing systems but your course stands out because of the breadth and depth it offers. The course ended months ago but I still go through the Cohort videos and every time I watch it, I end up learning something.

I would 100% recommend and have been recommending this course to my friends. And this course has even helped me during system design interviews. I have been able to crack a few interviews recently and all thanks to you for this.

Thank you so much again for everything!!!!!

I had no interviews coming up, I had two months where I took a leap to learn some new stuff. If you are enrolling just to learn and learn how to learn as a software developer, you are in for a ride. The course dives deep into building and highly practical and scalable systems, largely driven by his own personal experience and learning.

From designing distributed systems, managing trade-offs in the CAP theorem, to optimizing performance in high-load scenarios, Arpit's approach breaks down complex topics into understandable, actionable insights from the first principles. If you’re part of decision-making conversations in your organization—whether it's about optimizing performance, scaling architectures, or balancing system trade-offs—this course will equip you with the knowledge to make informed and practical decisions.

I loved the emphasis on pragmatism and the focus on how to get the job done in the most efficient, simple and scalable way possible. You’re surrounded by brilliant engineers from diverse backgrounds, and seeing everyone converge on a solution is truly magical. Whether you're building AI-driven applications or designing large-scale systems, this course will help you grow into a better engineer, help create more impact and rewire your brain.

A few key takeaways for me were:

• You win some, you lose some.
• If it works for you, it works for you.
• Simple systems scale.
• Framework of opposites, a good solution is often in the middle.
• Trade-offs aren't just about space and time—sometimes, you can even trade off correctness to build practical, real-world systems.

Arpit is a fantastic mentor who goes beyond just answering technical questions. His deep understanding of complex systems, especially ones I had never worked with, gave me the confidence to tackle unstructured problem statements with ease. He doesn’t just provide textbook answers—his real-world examples make the concepts click.

One thing that stands out is his motivational guidance, which kept me on track even when things got tough. In a market where many are just selling courses for the sake of MAANG preparation, this course stands out because it’s focused on solving real-world problems and building the right mindset.

Attending the sessions is genuinely fun! Especially the Q&A sessions after the course, where I get to hear about other people's challenges and see how those problems can be solved. It's really eye-opening to understand various perspectives and solutions.

Arpit genuinely cares about each student’s growth, and I appreciate how this course is tailored to practical challenges, not just theory. This is hands down one of the best learning experiences I’ve had!

Arpit truly puts his heart into this course, dedicating his full effort to make each session as engaging and insightful as possible. He is, without a doubt, one of the best teachers I've ever had, with a natural talent for teaching. He starts with simple problem statements and skillfully guides us to the system design of enterprise-level applications, adding layers of complexity as we go. The entire course and schedule are fantastic, but the brainstorming sessions are the highlight. I never thought I would be so glued to my chair during a technical discussion, much like watching a suspenseful movie.

After following Arpit on social media for some time, I became convinced that I needed to take his master class. Although I was initially hesitant because of the fee, I am so glad I took the plunge. Arpit delivers far more than expected. The most important thing he brings is the spark of curiosity and a new way to approach problems. This course has been worth every bit of investment.

Thank you, Arpit, for an incredible learning experience, for sparking a new way of thinking in all of us, and for the great impact you're making in the developer community!

“No fluff engineering” - This was the only quote I saw and I knew that I must join Arpit’s cohort. And trust me, the quote is true!

I know two types of Engineers - one who are passionate about their career and curious to learn and grow, the real doers who has made engineering products so valuable. Then there is this other category - I call them “Diwana’s” of engineering. They have got this love or craze for engineering, digging so passionately into stuff and seek this dopamine hit by engineering! They take engineering to heart. I am not here to categorise you or me in either of them, but I know for sure that both can benefit a lot from this cohort.

The cohort on System Design focuses on almost all the aspects of distributed systems in a very practical way. We have discussions and code examples on scalable design, concurrency, synchronous and asynchronous processing at scale, and also the protocols and design decisions in different scenarios. Arpit first gives a high level perspective and then we dig into the details so flawlessly, ending up designing an LSM tree, without even realising it. How cool is it ? :DTo keep things short, after my Masters in Distributed Systems Engineering, this was the place where I found the most clarified and organised knowledge base on large scale systems design. And, trust me I have grinded almost all the system design resources out there & can benchmark this course as great!

I would highly recommend freshers, mid-level and senior engineers to invest in yourself by joining this cohort.

Engineering is so beautiful. But, for you to see it, you must first look!

Before joining the course, I had been following Arpit on multiple platforms for more than a couple of years. I was already amazed and impressed by the quality content in depth and by Arpit's teaching style. Little did I know that I was in for a huge surprise. The first week was enough for me to realize that I have found the treasure I have been looking for a few years to learn and grow as an engineer. Looking back, I can clearly see that my engineering lenses are more clear than ever before.

Arpit, as a combination of a teacher and an engineer, is exemplary. I have never met an engineer like him before. He is great at keeping things simple and no fluff, and still manages to dive deep into each aspect of the system design. He actually did all of that for each and every design we discussed. His energy and thought process are contagious.

This cohort was the best thing happened to me in the last few years as an engineer. It feels like I have gained a few years of experience in the last 8 weeks only, and I have the roadmap ready for my learning and growth as an engineer for months. The right mix of Arpit's approach for each session, knowledge, explanations, handling of the live sessions and encouraging cohort members to share their experiences makes this course extraordinary. The cherry on the top is, the sessions end only after all questions are answered. The bonus is the recordings, which may not seem like a big deal initially, but are extremely necessary to grasp each concept and every detail Arpit has covered in the 50+ hours.

Now, when the course is completed, I will dearly miss the sessions on weekends. After going on and on for 8 weeks without taking any breaks, this feeling of missing the sessions speaks the volume of the quality and the aftereffect it left on every one of us, especially me.

I would encourage all mid/senior+ engineers to enroll for this course if you are looking to unlock your own potential for the system design and being a better version of yourself as an engineer. Based on this heavenly journey I experienced in the last 8 weeks, I feel that I have received the lifelong return, which is humongous in comparison to the investment made. Totally worth it!

I really loved the course and enjoyed being part of it. My heartfelt gratitude and respect to Arpit for designing this course exceptionally well and delivering much more than what I expected!

When I signed up for the course I came in with the expectation of learning different System Designs of various companies. Over the past 8 weeks I have come to realize on how to actually approach a problem. The way Arpit approached a System Design problem and how intuition based it can be, was truly eye opening.

Also I have come to realize how wonderful and vast the domain is. Also as Arpit mentions repeatedly in the course its not about drawing boxes, but understanding the context and actually approaching it from first principles.

Overall this course have made me fall in love with Engineering again and put me in a different trajectory that would help solve real world problems at whichever organization I work in.

PS: Arpit answered every question asked during the course and no question were left unanswered. That is truly commendable.

I've taken a few system design courses before, but they never really got into the nitty-gritty of implementation, where the real fun (and struggle) begins. System design is way more than just drawing boxes, and Arpit's course blew my mind :) Shoutout to my friend for recommending it – the cohort setup even got me to be a bit more disciplined (believe it or not)!

Arpit doesn't just talk about systems; he dives into the implementation details, the trade-offs involved, and the reasoning behind it all. It's not just about understanding existing systems; it's about levelling up your problem-solving skills for real-world design challenges.

The course format and Arpit's delivery were top-notch. I'm stoked that I caught every session live. Trust me, investing in this course was the best thing I did for my growth. You are an inspiration Arpit! Big thanks, for an awesome learning journey!

This course is the best investment I have made in my career!

I was looking for something which will actually help me upskill, gain knowledge and go deeper into things rather than talking about surface level things from interview point of view. Undoubtedly I got more than I had thought.

To be honest when I was looking for courses out there to learn System Design and to learn how things actually work in real world, I didn’t see much options and almost all of them were around Interview preparation

When I looked at the price of this course i.e. Rs 50,000 and compared it to other available options I thought it is 3-4 times of it and I asked myself will it be worth it. Today after going through this 2 months journey the answer is YES! it was completely worth it.

“The worth of good knowledge cannot be measured” Thanks a ton Arpit for the Knowledge and the learnings!

I didn’t just learn system design, I learned how to think; from 0 to all nuances and trade-offs. Unlike any other course, this one didn’t overwhelm me with jargon or shortcuts - it taught me how to solve real-world problems step by step. Everything is well structured.

Arpit's passion is totally contagious, and the regular prototyping, post-reads built my confidence.

And, I didn't start this course for interview shortcut (it was for learning and taking a leap from my slump); but by the end, I've got 5 good offers. And, I owe it all to this course and Arpit.

Working in the industry for just over three years, I had become complacent about the technologies around me and took their implementation for granted. What worked for me was Arpit reigniting my curiosity to delve deeper into the hows and whys of any system, library, or algorithm and think of them from a first principles perspective.

From high-level system design of "drawing boxes" to diving into SQL-level queries , connecting the tech with real-life business usecases,and then literally jumping into the IDE to code it out and see it run flawlessly. It was a cocktail of learnings.

I'm glad I signed up for this cohort. I will be using the insights and intuitions I've gained in my future endeavors. Thanks again, Arpit, for bringing this quality to the Indian tech space.

The entire cohort is very well structured and its exactly as what Arpit claims in his posts online, which is no fluff engineering.

It felt extremely good to be learning again and not just for the sake of cracking any interviews but deeply understanding the problems, thinking through the solution step by step and to be extremely aware of each and every trade-off in the system.

It is a must for anyone who is genuinely interested in understanding systems from a fundamental level.

Attending Aprit Bayani’s master class on system design has been a transformative experience for me, both professionally and personally. Before the course, I had a solid understanding of system design, but I often found myself unsure about how to scale systems effectively, especially in high-demand environments. Aprit’s course not only expanded my technical knowledge but completely shifted my mindset on how to approach the design and architecture of complex systems.

The master class was incredibly well-structured, breaking down intricate concepts like scalability, fault tolerance, distributed systems, and data consistency into digestible modules. Aprit’s teaching style was engaging, and he used real-world case studies that made the learning experience relatable and practical. I found myself constantly thinking, ‘This is exactly what I need to solve the problems I’ve been facing at work!’

One of the most impactful aspects of the course was how it addressed designing for scalability from the ground up, ensuring systems could handle growth without compromising performance or reliability. Aprit emphasized the importance of thinking beyond just the technical solution, encouraging us to consider how decisions affect the entire system, both in the short and long term.

What truly stood out for me was the immediate applicability of the knowledge. After completing the master class, I was able to implement several key principles into my work at Lenskart. The lessons I learned allowed me to design more scalable, efficient, and resilient systems, which had a direct impact on improving performance in our operations. It was like being given a new toolkit that I could apply directly to my day-to-day challenges.

Aprit’s insights and practical advice on tackling real-world scaling issues have fundamentally changed how I approach problem-solving in system design. I now feel much more confident in making architectural decisions that account for growth, high availability, and distributed environments. His master class is a must for anyone serious about taking their system design skills to the next level, especially in the fast-evolving tech landscape.

Overall, the course has been a turning point in my career, helping me evolve from just designing systems to thinking strategically about how to scale them for the future. I highly recommend Aprit Bayani’s master class to anyone looking to enhance their expertise in system design at scale.

Masterclass on System Design By Arpit was extremely good. It definitely re-ignited the engineering curiosity. It was completely practical where each and every session was packed with extremely good content and lot of hands-on topics were covered. Right from Connection pooling, Load Balancer, LSM Trees, CDNs, Consistent Hashing, Distributed Task Scheduler and so on. I was honestly excited for the weekends mainly for these sessions. Not only with respect to explaining the concepts, Arpit did a great job in clarifying all the questions. Though the sessions were scheduled for 3 hours, there was not even one class which would end at that time :).

Arpit gave a lot of real-time examples for each concept which helped in coming up with more options to solve the problem. Instead of giving the solution directly, he used to probe us which helped us in thinking in the right direction. The ultimate joy came from the fact that individuals tried implementing the prototype and seeing the results.

With the depth at which Arpit covered the concepts, it became really easy to design any systems. Arpit's cohort is a hidden gem among all other youtube videos which simply considers a theoretical approach which may not work in the long run. Few takeaways from this course which I will use in my day to day work are:

1. Business >> Product >> Engineering
2. Framework of Opposites - Choosing one option and considering exactly opposite of it.
3. Design anything considering that ONLY i will be implementing it.
4. Instead Simply going through a tutorial video or a link, trying to implement it which shows the actual nuances associated.

I would extremely recommend every Senior Engineer/ Architects out there to take up this course.