20 Best Books on System Design You Must Read

For students aiming for technical placements, System Design is an essential topic. Today’s employers are searching for college students with great problem-solving abilities and solid computer science basics.

In many FAANG interviews, system design questions have become routine. System design is one of the key factors that determine your candidacy in a technological organization.

Therefore, it becomes crucial that you have a firm grip on the material and comprehend it to the best of your ability. Books are the most reliable source of knowledge.

The author wants to make it easy for you to carry about, a manageable package of all of your life’s teachings. When learning system design, there is no better way to learn than through reading the most important books authored by renowned authors.

20 specially chosen books on system design are listed in this post.

They will aid you in thoroughly understanding system analysis and design ideas and will boost your self-assurance before a system design interview or improve your knowledge of it.

1. Designing Data-Intensive Application

Data-related difficulties in system design today include those related to scalability, consistency, dependability, efficiency, and maintainability.

Additionally, it might be challenging to choose the best tool for your application from among the numerous ones available (such as batch processors, message brokers, etc.).

What does the terminology here mean?

The advantages and disadvantages of various technologies for processing and storing data are discussed in this book by author Martin Kleppmann.

From basic ideas and algorithms to real-world uses and the details of various technologies, the book gives an exhaustive review of data storage systems. This book will assist beginners in accelerating their learning processes by incorporating the experience of experienced system architects.

The author expertly combines theoretical concepts with real-world applications in his work. Anyone interested in large data, distributed systems, or database internals ought to read it.

This book is so much more than you could anticipate. Newer approaches like microservices, reactive architectures, DevOps, and stream processing combine tried-and-true methods like service-oriented and event-driven architectures.

Numerous of these patterns are effective when used independently, but as this useful ebook shows, when combined, they offer a more comprehensive and persuasive strategy.

2. Modern System Design and Analysis

Consider that you want a hands-on approach to studying the concepts, abilities, and methods related to system analysis and design. The best system design book for you in that situation is this one.

This book is more suited for developing an entire student learning system because it also has a section on agile approaches. The concepts, abilities, approaches, strategies, tools, and perspectives necessary for systems analysts to create information systems are presented in Modern Systems Analysis and Design, which places a greater emphasis on the practical than the theoretical.

Students are assumed by the authors to have attended an introductory computer systems course and to have some prior experience writing programs in at least one programming language.

The writers give a conceptual and methodical framework while logically moving through the issues by referencing the systems development life cycle.

3. System Analysis and Design by Scott Tiley

One of the most important systems design textbooks now accessible is widely recognized as being this book by Scott Tiley on system design. To build better systems, system designers have used and are comparing traditional and cutting-edge methods.

This book will help you understand what changed, why the change had to be made, and why it had to be made in the first place.

In addition to learning how the systems work, you will also learn about cloud computing and mobile apps, among other things, according to the authors, who claim that this book contains sections on object-oriented coding and agile methodology, two of the most frequently used methodologies in businesses today.

The book is jam-packed with assignments and exercises that will compel you to don your thinking caps and use your newly acquired information straight immediately.

4. Head First Design Pattern

You want to learn from those who have gone before since you dislike starting from scratch when it comes to software creation. To learn from others’ experiences who have faced similar system design challenges to your own, you look to design patterns.

Through the use of design patterns, you can make use of others’ knowledge so that you can concentrate on more difficult or pleasant tasks.

This book, written by Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Robson, teaches what patterns are and when, why, and how to use them in your own creations. It also explores the object-oriented ideas that underpin the designs.

This is a fun method to learn about and enhance your understanding of software development. You will study fundamental design ideas and patterns so that you can solve software design challenges and communicate in pattern language with your team.

It may not appear “serious enough” at first, but as time passes, things stick in your brain and you like discovering patterns. This book effectively simplifies and clarifies patterns.

5. Clean Architecture

Robert is an accomplished author who has authored a number of books on agile development and clean code.

Now, it should go without saying that after reading Robert C. Martin’s books, you will be able to improve the flow of your code and include agile techniques into your design solutions in addition to understanding system design ideas.

Nevertheless, this book focuses on the fundamentals of system analysis and design as well as the numerous difficulties that system designers face while creating a real-world solution.

Also covered in this book are test-driven development techniques and how to run unit tests to increase system effectiveness. For system design students and anybody trying to raise the standard of their software these days, this book is the best one accessible.

Clean Architecture explains the decisions you need to make and why they are essential to your success, rather than just presenting you with a variety of possibilities and saying, “Use your best judgment.”

6. System Analysis and Design by Dennis, Wixom, and Roth

This book provides in-depth explanations of projects that are applicable to real-life situations, which helps you gain a better grasp of system analysis and design. The book also includes several case studies and examples, all of which are detailed in great detail.

This book will help you enhance your network design studies and get a firm understanding of system analysis and design concepts.

Accordingly, depending on your perspective, this book can be categorized as both a system design book for beginners and a system design book for medium- and higher-level computer science students.

Running instances and examples are used to illustrate key ideas, which are then supported with in-depth explanations and other features that emphasize important details and place an emphasis on the act of “doing” in addition to “learning.”

Students gain the fundamental information and abilities that a professional analyst requires as well as an instinct for approach, tools, and techniques as they apply their own work to actual situations.

7. System Design Interview by Alex Xu

Developers frequently have the answers to interview questions on system design because they are intimidated by the vast array of potential choices. But if there isn’t a clear-cut response, how can you effectively answer it in an interview?

The best book currently on the market, this one is recommended for anybody preparing for a system design interview. The book includes a lot of illustrations and graphics that help you comprehend the actual method by appearing to be real questionnaire items.

In addition, this book will help you comprehend what the hiring managers want to see in your solution, enabling you to ace your subsequent system design exam with ease. It will give you more self-assurance throughout this crucial interview.

The method for approaching a system design challenge is laid out in detail in this book. It also provides several instances from the actual world to show how a methodical approach works, along with clear instructions you can follow.

8. Patterns of Enterprise of Application Architecture

The introduction of several new enabling technologies has benefitted the profession of corporate application development. Platforms enabling multi-tiered object-oriented development, such as Java and.NET, are already widespread.

Although these new tools and technologies can be used to create powerful applications, they are difficult to put into practice. Because their developers do not comprehend the architectural principles that seasoned object developers have learned, business apps frequently fail on a regular basis.

Enterprise application developers confront several difficulties, which inspired the authors of Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture to write their book.

The author, a renowned object-oriented designer Martin Fowler, observed that the same fundamental design principles can be modified and applied to address common issues regardless of changes in technology, from Smalltalk to CORBA to Java to .NET.

Martin deconstructs over forty repeating solutions into patterns with the assistance of a knowledgeable group of volunteers. The end product is a valuable manual of fixes that can be used with any corporate application platform.

9. Building Microservices

Over the past ten years, distributed systems have evolved from large, code-intensive monolithic apps to more compact, independent microservices. However, creating these systems has its own set of challenges.

This book presents a comprehensive approach to the issues that system architects and administrators must take into account while creating, administering, and upgrading microservice architectures, with many examples and helpful guidance. 

Technologies for microservices are developing swiftly. While delving into the most recent approaches for designing, integrating, testing, deploying, and monitoring your own autonomous services, author Sam Newman gives you a solid foundation in the principles.

Throughout the book, you’ll follow a hypothetical corporation to see how creating a microservice architecture impacts a particular domain.

10. Hands-on System Design

This book’s concentration is on scaling software applications, and it takes the reader on an in-depth trip. After reading this article, you’ll have a better grasp of how to build a scalable, enterprise-level application.

The book goes through system design concepts, computer networks, main networking protocols, scalable data access mechanisms, and alternative architectural styles for building the system.

A detailed investigation of numerous technologies and their implementation is carried out, including Cache Memory, CDN, Load Balancers, and Messaging Queues.

The book also explains how to construct a scalable enterprise-level solution using various technology combinations. Your decision on the optimal path for system architecture is aided by your analysis of several architectural designs.

The book also examines design patterns and object-oriented programming techniques that aid in writing clear, maintainable code. By using multiple real-world system design examples, the reader will get an intuitive understanding of various tools and methods for producing a scalable system.

11. Embedded System Design

Providing a thorough introduction to the fundamental concepts in embedded systems, with applications in cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things, is a special feature of this open access textbook.

A study of specification models and languages for embedded and cyber-physical systems precedes an introduction to the area.

It explains the fundamentals of system software for embedded systems, including real-time operating systems, and gives a basic introduction to the hardware components utilized in such systems.

In addition, the author presents an overview of methods for mapping programs to execution platforms, including multi-core platforms, and talks about evaluation and validation approaches for embedded systems.

Because embedded systems must work under strict parameters, the book also includes a hand-picked collection of optimization approaches, such as software optimization techniques. In the book’s conclusion, testing is briefly discussed.

12. System Design Interview: A Complete Guide

One of the most hated and challenging parts of technical job interviews is the system design interview. The uncertainties are frightening.

But if you carefully examine the analyses and procedures detailed in this magazine, you’ll be able to overcome any obstacles you encounter while employing data engineering techniques for evaluations.

You’ll discover the many interviewing methods for engineers. You will have a complete understanding of the steps necessary to use data-intensive apps after reading this guidebook.

After reading it, whether you’re a practitioner or a non-backend engineer, you’ll learn a lot about how to implement data systems across networks, including RDBMS, NoSQL, IMS, and others.

13. Designing Distributed System

Large corporations are hard at work implementing new technology for developing new goods, procedures, and business models in the struggle to compete in today’s quick-moving markets.

Placing too much emphasis on technology and not enough on the kinds of processes that technology allows is one barrier to digital transformation, though.

What if various corporate sectors were allowed to create their own services and apps, and decision-making was decentralized rather than centralized? In order to enable different business sectors to respond to data in real-time, this research investigates the idea of a digital business platform.

In a digital corporation, a lot of innovation will increasingly take place at the edge, whether it includes IoT devices or business users (from marketers to data scientists).

Your core IT staff can give these industries the digital resources they require to develop swiftly in order to streamline the process. This book investigates: Important organizational and cultural shifts are required to establish business capabilities through cross-functional product teams. a system for connecting programs, databases, clients, partners, social networks, and Internet of Things devices.

For the purpose of developing cutting-edge edge services in low-code or no-code settings, internal API programming Application Platform as a Service, Integration Platform as a Service, and Integration Software as a Service are some examples of tools.

14. Designing Machine Learning System 

Systems for machine learning are both intricate and special. They are complex because they have a wide range of constituent parts and stakeholders.

Because they depend on data, which varies greatly from one use case to the next, they are special.

You’ll discover a comprehensive method for creating ML systems that are dependable, scalable, maintainable, and adaptable to changing surroundings and business requirements in this book.

Author Chip Huyen, the co-founder of Claypot AI, takes into account how each design choice might assist your system as a whole to achieve its goals.

Examples include how to handle and produce training data, which features to utilize, how frequently to retrain models, and what to monitor. This book’s iterative methodology employs real-world case studies that are backed up by a wealth of sources.

15. Designing Secure Systems

Technology, physical security, and human processes are all linked in modern systems. Attackers are aware of this and frequently take advantage of a flaw in one type of protection to take over an otherwise secure activity.

We require a single, all-encompassing model that can be applied to explain every component of the system on an equal footing in order to reveal these flaws.

From padlocks to phishing to corporate software design, Designing Secure Systems presents a theory-based approach to issues underlying all types of systems, and discussed how weaknesses in one area of a system lead to vulnerabilities in other areas while implementing the frameworks and standards utilized in the cybersecurity industry.

The security of the entire system, including its people, procedures, and technology, will be analyzed using a single model.

16. System Analysis, Design, and Testing

The goal is to use simple language to help ‘A-Level students comprehend the concepts of System analysis, System design, testing, and MIS.

The book is intended to give readers the knowledge they need to comprehend System Analysis, Design Aspects, and the Function of Testing in Software Development.

In-depth understanding is provided through case studies in addition to a theoretical basis. With the help of numerous graphics in simple language, standards and guidelines for form design, report design, GUI design, etc., are explored.

The benefits and drawbacks of CASE tools are also briefly covered. Simple and effective examples demonstrate the most recent UML diagram standards. The book discusses both structured and object-oriented software analysis and design methodologies.

With the help of numerous examples and illustrations, fact-gathering strategies, joint application development (JAD), business process re-engineering, flowcharting techniques, data flow diagrams, decision trees, decision tables, structured charts, and data dictionaries are explained in simple English.

Students, programmers, researchers, and software developers who want to understand, analyze, and build software should read this book.

17. Software Architecture Pattern for Serverless Systems

This book demonstrates how to construct and run anti-fragile systems and walks you through the fundamental architectural components that permit change, such as events, autonomous services, and micro frontends, that power enterprise-grade software systems.

You’ll segment a system and set parameters so that teams can operate independently and quicken the speed of invention. Along with the many autonomous service design patterns, the book also covers low-level events and data patterns that support the whole architecture.

You’ll concentrate on best practices for security, dependability, testability, observability, and performance as you go.

The book then brings everything you’ve learned together by describing the processes of continuous experimentation, deployment, and delivery before giving you a few last tips on how to begin moving forward.

By the conclusion of this book, you will be able to design your own event-driven, serverless systems that are flexible enough to produce value at the speed that your company requires.

18. Cloud Native Architectures

The biggest ground-breaking advancement in information technology since virtualization has been cloud computing. You have more flexibility with cloud-native designs compared to traditional systems.

When organizations discover they cannot migrate to the cloud, they must update their development models and architectures in order to capitalize on this.

Organizational modernization, deployment modernization, and cloud-native architectural patterns are the three key elements that Cloud-Native architecture displays when delivering contemporary cloud-native architectures.

In order to describe and clarify what cloud-native architecture is and is not, this book begins with a brief introduction to cloud-native architectures.

You will get an understanding of a cloud adoption framework and learn how to create cloud-native architectures utilizing the architectural concepts of microservices and serverless computing.

The main components of cloud-native design, such as scalability, cost reduction, security, and methods for achieving operational excellence, will next be covered. You will also discover a variety of public cloud designs, from AWS and Azure to the Google Cloud Platform, in the final chapters.

19. Introduction to Microprocessor-based System Design

For engineering and computer science students pursuing their first semester of microprocessor-based system design, this book is recommended.

It starts with a summary of the fundamental ideas, then takes the reader through the building of a straightforward microprocessor example using a methodical, step-by-step approach to problem-solving.

The installation and programming of microcomputer systems built around a second microprocessor are then demonstrated to the reader. Greater comprehension and learning effectiveness are provided by the numerous solved instances and exercises.

In addition, many microprocessor-based systems that have been built expressly for instructional purposes are thoroughly developed, simulated, and implemented on FPGA-based platforms in the book’s final section.

The writers of this textbook drew on their wealth of knowledge while creating learning resources for undergraduate and graduate engineering courses.

20. Cracking System Design Interview

You must have knowledge about system design if you wish to advance in the field of software engineering. Even if you’re just starting out with coding, it’s a good idea to get a head start on understanding system architecture.

Early in your career, your coding abilities will primarily determine how well you perform. On the other side, higher-level interviews will often give more weight to your knowledge of and expertise with application design.

The fact that system design interviews are more open-ended and lack a single right response makes them the most challenging for engineers to complete.

With this book, the author hopes to provide you with a road map for navigating these kinds of interviews because the absence of organization might be intimidating.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the 20 books listed above are the greatest system design books online. Be careful not to become overwhelmed by them and purchase them all.

Choose a book that you truly enjoy, and be sure you read it cover to cover. It is preferable to patiently read one book than to quickly skim through several of them.

You can increase your knowledge with the aid of these books, and you could even succeed in passing the system design interview.