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Grokking the Product Architecture Design Interview

The essential guide to API Design & Product Design Interviews – developed by FAANG engineers. Master product design fundamentals & get hands-on with real-world APIs.

Intermediate

133 Lessons

20h

Certificate of Completion

The essential guide to API Design & Product Design Interviews – developed by FAANG engineers. Master product design fundamentals & get hands-on with real-world APIs.

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Mock Interview

Explanations

Prompt

AI-POWERED

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Mock Interview

This course includes

7 AI Prompts

32 AI Feedbacks

161 Quizzes

Course Overview

What You'll Learn

Course Content

Recommendations

Course Overview

Designing a modern system involves navigating complex requirements to create cohesive and functional designs. As a designer, you'll need to understand these requirements and guide the design process effectively, addressing both broad and specific topics in product design. In this course, you will design APIs for well-known systems such as YouTube, Stripe, and Zoom, understanding how these APIs integrate into the larger product ecosystem. You'll begin by discussing recurring concepts, using them as foundati...Show More

What You'll Learn

An understanding of the foundational knowledge of API design

Familiarity with the principles of advanced-level API designing

An understanding of the importance of good APIs

An understanding of what makes a good API design

Ability to tackle any new API design endeavor

An understanding of the foundational knowledge of API design

Course Content

Introduction to the Course

4 Lessons

The chapter outlines the APIs and their significance in software communication, emphasizing product design practices and business considerations.

Introduction to APIs

Unpacking API Design

About the Product Architecture Design Course

Business Considerations with APIs

Network Intricacies

3 Lessons

This chapter teaches network fundamentals, focusing on latency, throughput, and network sockets as the foundation for communication.

The Narrow Waist of the Internet

Latency and Throughput

Network Sockets as a Foundation for Communication

Different Ways of Client-Server Communication

5 Lessons

The chapter explores client-server communication methods, including HTTP, RPCs, and WebSockets, to understand how data is transmitted over the web.

World Wide Web

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

Evolution of HTTP

Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)

WebSockets

Common Data Formats for Web APIs

4 Lessons

The chapter discusses the importance and selection of data formats for effective API communication, covering textual and binary types for optimal performance.

Data Representation and Efficient Communication in APIs

Textual Data Formats

Binary Data Formats

Let AI evaluate Your Understanding of Data Formats

Comparison of API Architectural Styles

7 Lessons

This chapter compares REST, GraphQL, and gRPC, teaching you how to evaluate and choose based on their applications, advantages, and trade-offs.

Introduction to Web API Architectural Styles

Representational State Transfer (REST): Web Architecture Style

RESTful API

GraphQL: A Query Language for APIs

The gRPC Framework

Comparisons of Different API Architecture Styles

Let AI Evaluate Your Understanding of Architectural Styles

API Design Security

9 Lessons

This chapter covers API security, including TLS, input validation, CORS, authentication, authorization, and security frameworks.

Introduction to API Security

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

Securing APIs Using Input Validation

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) in APIs

Authentication and Authorization

OAuth: The Authorization Framework

Authentication and Authorization Frameworks: OpenID and SAML

High-Level View of Security in APIs

Quiz on API Security

Important Concepts in API Design

18 Lessons

The chapter emphasizes key API design concepts including versioning, rate limiting, caching, and monitoring, essential for efficiency and user experience.

API Versioning

Evolving an API Design

Rate Limiting

Client-Adapting APIs

Data Fetching Patterns

Event-Driven Architecture Protocols

Cookies and Sessions

The Role of Idempotency in API Design

Server-Side Rendering vs. Client-Side Rendering

Quiz on Important API Concepts - I

Speeding up Web Page Loading

Resource Hints and Debouncing

Circuit Breaker Pattern

Managing Retries

Caching at Different Layers

API Monitoring

Quiz on Important API Concepts - II

Let AI Evaluate your Concepts of the API Design

Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations for Latency

5 Lessons

This chapter focuses on estimating API response times, processing times, and latency essential for performance evalulation and user satisfaction.

Introduction to Response Time in APIs

Estimation of Processing Time of an API

Estimation of Latency of an API

The Estimation of Response Time of an API

Discussion on Response Time

What Are the Foundational API Designs?

3 Lessons

This chapter introduces the REDCAMEL approach for designing APIs and foundational API designs for reusable functionalities across applications.

The REDCAMEL Approach for Designing APIs

Conventions for the Design Chapters of the Course

Foundational API Designs

10.

Design a Search Service

6 Lessons

This chapter covers the design of a search service, including requirements, design decisions, API models, and latency estimation.

Requirements of the Search API

Introduction to the Search Service

Search API Design Decisions

API Model for Search Service

Refinements in the Search API

Search API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

11.

Design a File Service

4 Lessons

The chapter outlines the design and evaluation of a file service API, focusing on requirements, architecture, and optimization for reliability and performance.

Requirements of the File API

File API Design Decisions

API Model for File Service

File API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

12.

Design a Comment Service

5 Lessons

The chapter explores the design elements and requirements for a comment service API, focusing on functionality, architecture, and latency evaluation.

Requirements of the Comment API

Comment API Design Decisions

API Model for Comment Service

Comment API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

Quiz on Rating API

13.

Design a Pub-Sub Service

5 Lessons

The chapter explores the design and implementation of a pub-sub service, focusing on asynchronous communication, API requirements, and performance evaluation.

Introduction to the Pub-Sub Service

Requirements of the Pub-Sub API

Pub-Sub API Design Decisions

API Model for Pub-Sub Service

Pub-Sub API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

14.

Concluding Foundational Design Problems

1 Lessons

The chapter delves into advanced API design challenges using API designs like search, pub-sub, file and commenting as foundation.

Advanced API Design Problems

15.

YouTube Streaming API Design

6 Lessons

The chapter discusses the comprehensive design of the YouTube Streaming API, focusing on requirements, architecture, and latency management for optimal user experience.

Requirements of the YouTube API

Introduction to Video Streaming

YouTube API Design Decisions

API Model for YouTube Service

YouTube API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

Quiz on TikTok API Design

16.

Facebook Messenger API Design

4 Lessons

This chapter covers Messenger API design, emphasizing efficient messaging, security, and real-time communication.

Requirements of the Messenger API

Messenger API Design Decisions

API Model for Messenger Service

Messenger API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

17.

Google Maps API Design

4 Lessons

The Google Maps API design focusing requirements, architectural design decisions, API endpoint functionalities, and performance evaluation strategies.

Requirements of the Google Maps API

Google Maps API Design Decisions

API Model for Google Maps Service

Google Maps API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

18.

Learn to Design a Chess API with AI Mentor

1 Lessons

In this chapter, you will interact with our AI mentor for enhanced development feedback to design a Chess API.

Chess API Design AI Mentor (Beta)

19.

Zoom API Design

5 Lessons

This chapter teaches video conferencing API design, focusing on requirements, network architecture, real-time communication, and optimal performance strategies.

Requirements of the Zoom API

Introduction to Video Conferencing

Zoom API Design Decisions

API Model for Zoom Service

Zoom API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

20.

Leetcode API Design

4 Lessons

The chapter discusses the design and functionalities of the LeetCode API, emphasizing service structure, efficiency, and user interaction.

Requirements of the LeetCode API

LeetCode API Design Decisions

API Model for LeetCode Service

LeetCode API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

21.

Payment Gateway API Design—Stripe

6 Lessons

This chapter is about Stripe API design teaching payment processing while ensuring security, reliability, and efficient transactions and data management.

Requirements of the Stripe API

Working of a Payment System

Stripe API Design Decisions

API Model for Stripe Service

Stripe Interaction with Cards Network

Stripe API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

22.

Twitter API Design

4 Lessons

The chapter teaches Twitter API design emphasizing user interactions, API model, and efficient performance management.

Requirements of the Twitter API

Twitter API Design Decisions

API Model for Twitter Service

Twitter API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

23.

Uber API Design

4 Lessons

The chapter discusses the Uber API's design, covering key API architectural decisions and evaluations to ensure efficiency and security.

Requirements of the Uber API

Uber API Design Decisions

API Model for Uber Service

Uber API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

24.

CamelCamelCamel API Design

5 Lessons

This chapter explores how CamelCamelCamel API is designed to track Amazon product price drops focusing a robust API design using REST API.

Requirements of the CamelCamelCamel API

CamelCamelCamel API Design Decisions

API Model for CamelCamelCamel Service

CamelCamelCamel's Communication with the Amazon Service

CamelCamelCamel API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

25.

Gaming API Design

5 Lessons

The chapter explores the complexities of gaming API design, focusing on optimal performance using event-driven architecture and JSON data format.

Requirements of the Gaming API

Introduction to the Gaming Ecosystem

Gaming API Design Decisions

API Model for Gaming Service

Gaming API Design Evaluation and Latency Budget

26.

API Failures and Mitigations

4 Lessons

This chapter covers causes of API failures discussing notable incidents and robust mitigation strategies to enhance reliability and prevent disruptions.

What Causes API Failures

Knight Capital Failure Due to Development Bug

Amazon S3 Service Disruption

Facebook and Uber APIs Failure

27.

Conclusion

2 Lessons

This chapter wraps up the course discussing API design key takeaways, strategies for implementation and testing, and the next step for API design mastery.

What’s Next?

Conclusion

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Free Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

What is product architecture design?

Product architecture design refers to the structural framework that defines how various components of a product interact and work together to deliver its intended functionality. It helps designers and engineers visualize the relationships between different modules, subsystems, and features that form a cohesive product.

What is a product architecture interview?

A product architecture interview evaluates candidates’ ability to design and architect products, APIs, or systems that meet specific requirements and constraints. It typically lasts 45 minutes, and understanding the System Design components, trade-offs, and scalability are a few essential factors to focus on. For developers looking to prepare for product architecture interviews, they should take courses in product architecture design.

How do I prepare for a product design interview?

For product design interview preparation, developers should understand the product design process and business strategy. They should practice creating user-centered designs, articulate design trade-offs, and measure success with metrics. Moreover, developers can enhance skills with online courses and mock interviews, while showcasing design process and problem-solving in a solid portfolio.