System Design Primer: Update Edition

Welcome to the System Design Primer: Update Edition. This project is an evolution of the original System Design Primer, tailored for the era of 2025 & Generative AI.

The content is currently served via GitHub Pages. To explore the latest material on system design, head over to system-design-primer-update/.

Introduction

1. Software Development in 2025: Kubernetes & Generative AI

The world of software development has evolved dramatically since 2017. Today, systems are designed for distribution from day one, powered by Kubernetes, container orchestration, and the rise of Generative AI. This shift demands fresh perspectives on architecture, scalability, and operational practices.

2. Why We Need an Updated Edition

• Outdated Core Content: The majority of the original material dates back to 2017. Foundational chapters on scaling, fault tolerance, and microservices were written before Kubernetes became ubiquitous.
• Generative AI Impact: Emerging AI-driven patterns—from inference pipelines to LLM-powered observability—are not covered in the legacy primer. Incorporating these topics will keep the guide relevant.
• Stagnant Maintenance: Even minor fixes—typo corrections, link updates, and broken URL patches—have gone unaddressed for at least two years. Examples include is this awesome repo no longer been updated? that was opened at Feb 2024 or Indieflashblog link is dead that was opened at Jan 2021.

3. Community Call to Action

The original repo served countless learners and interview candidates, but its current lack of maintenance makes it effectively obsolete. If you find value in revitalizing this resource:

• ⭐ Star this fork so it gains visibility
• 📝 Contribute fixes for typos, link repairs, and outdated examples
• 💡 Submit enhancements on Kubernetes best practices, AI-powered architectures, and modern tooling

Together, we can create a state-of-the-art primer that reflects the realities of cloud-native, AI-augmented system design in 2025 and beyond.

🎯 Vision

Our long-term goal is to transform this primer into a dynamic, AI‑powered platform for designing modern systems. Instead of static pages filled with links and text, we envision interactive tools that:

• Visualize trade‑offs: Experiment with different architectures using real‑time simulations.
• Simulate interviews: Practice system design questions with AI‑driven feedback.
• Generate code & infrastructure: Spin up sample deployments with Kubernetes manifests and GenAI‑generated code snippets.

These capabilities will help learners deepen their understanding and kickstart real projects—all within a single, evolving repository.

🚀 Plan

1. Modularize Content: Break the existing material into concise, focused modules.
2. Enable GenAI Integration: Embed AI assistants for content summaries, diagram generation, and personalized quizzes.
3. Automate Maintenance: Use agentic‑AI agents to detect broken links, outdated examples, and propose updates automatically.
4. Expand Interactive Examples: Provide Docker‑based demos and live code sandboxes for hands‑on experimentation.
5. Revamp Learning Assets: Replace legacy Anki cards with modern, adaptive flashcards powered by machine‑learning schedulers.

📈 Status & Next Steps

Completed

• Issue & PR migration: Migrated all issues and pull requests to the new repo—merged active PRs, closed those older than three years as archived, and marked old issues as “not planned” to preserve history while allowing users to reopen them if they wish.
• Project board established: To enable a clear view of project progress, see our System Design Primer Content Update & Revamp.
• Added Discussions: To enable a community driven effort, we will use discussions to share ideas, ask questions and get feedback.

In Progress

• Content refactoring: Monolithic README split into modular sections.
• Solutions modernization:
• GitHub Pages deployment: Easy navigation and styling via Pages.
• Mermaid Diagrams: Converting static images into editable flowcharts.

Upcoming

• Translation overhaul: Prototype AI‑assisted translation workflow.
• Fair‑use excerpts: Add curated snippets from key texts (Alex Xu, Brendan Burns).
• CI/CD for quality: Automate grammar checks, link validations, and draft translations.
• Interactive course launch: Alpha release of an AI‑guided system design simulator.

❓ Open Questions

• Translations: Should we host only English and rely on on‑the‑fly tools, or maintain dedicated, AI‑updated branches per language?
• Learning platforms: Which modern flashcard or note‑taking tool best complements this primer?
• Community engagement: How can we encourage contributions and drive adoption away from the legacy repo?
• Self‑updating vision: What agentic‑AI frameworks should we explore to make this repo autonomously current?

🗂️ Repository Structure (WIP)

├── README.md            # Overview & roadmap
├── docs/                # Main content
├── images/              # Old Images to be replaced with mermaid diagrams
├── solutions/           # will moved to docs/
...
└── .github/             # CI/CD and issue templates

🤝 Contributing

Whether you’re fixing a typo, adding a new demo, or building an AI agent to keep this repo fresh, your help is welcome! To get started:

1. ⭐ Star the repo to boost visibility
2. 🐛 Report issues or suggest features
3. 💬 Join discussions to shape the roadmap
4. 🎁 Submit PRs for content, code, or tooling improvements

Together, let’s build the next‑generation System Design Primer—where AI meets architecture!

⚖️ License and Attribution

This current content of project is based on the System Design Primer by Donne Martin, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

All modifications and additions in System Design Primer Update are made in the spirit of open collaboration and innovation and for now are licensed under the same license as the original content but this might change in the future.