FoundationFree
Name the pieces. Walk the request.
The spine. One component at a time, then four complete systems. Free once you have an account — progress still unlocks in order.
20 lessons · 12 labs0%
Foundation System Design
System design, as a skill
Learn the pieces. Then draw the path.
A beginner gym: one short lesson, then a lab where you connect boxes and get a critique — not a catalog of FAANG answers.
Lessons0/52
Labs passed0/36
A looping demo of one lab: a client is connected to an app server, the app server to a database, and the design is submitted for critique, which scores 100 and passes every rule.
Three components. No path yet.
Three tracks
Start free. Go as deep as you want.
Foundation is free with an account — every lesson and every lab. Finish a track and you get a shareable certificate with a serial anyone can verify.
PractitionerBy request
Things fail. Design for it.
What the spine leaves out: timeouts, hot keys, sharding, and work that happens after the response. Labs stop telling you which box is missing.
23 lessons · 18 labs0%
Practitioner System Design
ArchitectBy request
Many machines, one answer.
Consensus, multi-region, and ledgers that must never lose a rupee. The hardest labs here start from an empty canvas and have more than one defensible answer.
9 lessons · 6 labs0%
Architect System Design
What this app is for
For people who can ship features but freeze when someone says “how would you design this?”
SysAlchemy Labs teaches system design as a skill: name the client, walk the request, earn each component, then draw it. Interviews come later — after you can explain why a cache belongs on the path.
Who it is for
Juniors, career-switchers, and anyone new to backend. You do not start with Twitter. You start with Client → Server → Database.
What you do here
Learn a single idea with checks. Then Lab for gated briefs, or Playground for a random problem. DesignFeed is the reading room: architectures, case studies, and new tech, always as a request path.
What it is not
Not a dump of 80 interview questions. Not an AI score. Components stay locked until you have earned them — so you cannot sprinkle Kafka on day one.
Four rooms
Where to go next
Learn
The spine
Foundations, then one building block at a time, then numbers, patterns, and four complete systems. Gated. No Instagram on day one.
Continue: Client vs server →
Lab
The canvas
Drag components you have earned. Submit and get a walkthrough of the request path versus a reference design.
Open the workshop →
Playground
The sandbox
A random brief, every component unlocked. Drag entities onto the board, design the path, then generate the same rule-based critique as Lab.
Open the sandbox →
DesignFeed
The reading room
Case studies, system architectures, and new tech — each one walked as a request path, not a logo dump.
Open the feed →