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Interview Roadmap Appendix: 107 Topics, One Index

Algomi Research · Created 2026-09-29 · Updated 2026-10-02 · System Design

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This is a map, not a lesson. Each row names a roadmap topic and jumps to the post and section that teaches it. The topics are numbered 1 to 107 and grouped into the same tracks as the roadmap. The twenty-eight Interview Roadmap Deep Dives (Parts 1 to 28) fill the gaps the original series left; the earlier guides, case studies, and AI posts cover the rest.

Every post ends with numbered interview questions and a quick revision list, so together they work as revision material: read a section, answer its questions aloud, and tick the checklist at the bottom.

Coverage note. Every topic below has a home, but depth varies. Topics marked (overview) are covered in a section or paragraph rather than a full post: for example the transformer architecture and GPU hardware inside the serving posts, and Kubernetes objects inside the production engineering post. If an interviewer targets one of those in depth, supplement with the linked sources at the end of the post.

Track 1: High-level system design

# Roadmap topic Where to read
1 System design fundamentals, requirements, estimation Foundations and data, capacity estimation
2 Databases and distributed storage Foundations: storage, SQL vs NoSQL
3 Storage engines and database internals B-trees vs LSM trees, indexes, ACID and isolation
4 Database scaling Replication, sharding, hot partitions
5 Distributed consistency (CAP, PACELC, quorums) Consistency models and quorums, CAP stated carefully
6 Caching Caching deep dive, failure modes
7 Networking and transport Networking and APIs, HTTP versions and TLS path, gRPC deep dive
8 Load balancing Load balancing and global traffic
9 API design Pagination, idempotency, rate limiting
10 Event-driven and asynchronous systems Architecture and messaging
11 Apache Kafka deep dive Kafka core concepts, consumer groups
12 Messaging reliability Delivery semantics, retries and DLQs
13 Distributed systems fundamentals Why agreement is hard
14 Raft consensus Raft in plain language
15 Logical clocks Clocks lie, logical clocks
16 Distributed locking Locks and why they are dangerous
17 Reliability patterns Timeouts, retries, breakers, bulkheads, rate limiting and overload
18 High availability and disaster recovery Redundancy and failover, ultra-resilient patterns, recovery and RTO/RPO
19 Big data architecture Batch, stream, CDC, lakehouse, CDC
20 Microservice architecture patterns Monolith or microservices, outbox, saga, CQRS and event sourcing, service mesh
21 HLD case studies Interview workbook and the case-study list below
22 Video streaming system YouTube, Netflix, Hotstar live, CDN
23 Location-based services Geohash, quadtree, S2, H3, ride-hailing dispatch
24 Advanced database and search systems Search, autocomplete, time series, ad click aggregation
25 Collaborative editing OT and CRDTs
26 Stock exchange architecture Order book and matching engine, broker concerns

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