While many system design summaries and code repositories exist on GitHub, full PDFs of published books (like Alex Xu's) are copyrighted. It is best to use the GitHub repositories for open-source code examples and diagrams, and the books for the detailed methodology.
Alex Xu often releases free, condensed versions of his content through his ByteByteGo Newsletter system design interview alex wu pdf github
Pick reasonable defaults and state them. Interviewers expect assumptions; choose defensible numbers (e.g., 100M MAU, 1% of users upload daily → 1M uploads/day). While many system design summaries and code repositories
| Repository | Best For | Stars | Alex Xu Equivalent | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Complete beginners | 250k+ | All chapters | | puncsky/system-design-and-architecture | Cheatsheets & quick lookup | 10k+ | Blueprint summaries | | binhnguyennus/awesome-scalability | Real-world case studies | 55k+ | Deep dive examples | | davidgomes/system-design-101 | Infographics | 8k+ | Visual flowcharts | | InterviewReady/system-design-resources | Mock interview videos | 4k+ | Whiteboard sessions | 158 pages) was released in 2024, containing high-resolution
. A notable "Big Archive" PDF (approx. 158 pages) was released in 2024, containing high-resolution diagrams and core concept summaries
: Choose between SQL and NoSQL based on data structure and consistency needs. API Design : Define the endpoints and request/response formats. Low-Level Design