Top 15 Courses to Learn System Design and Software Architecture in 2024 - Best of Lot

Software design or System design is one of the tricky concepts to master. You can quickly learn a programming language like Java or Python, but creating software using that programming language is a totally different thing. That's where software design and coding skills come to the rescue. It's actually an art to structure your program, design your modules, specify boundaries and interactions with other parts of the system so that they are easier to read, maintain, and flexible to change. It's one of the most essential skills for a software developer but often gets ignored. If you look for an online course to learn Software design and architecture, you won't find many, forget about good ones.

At the same, time if you look for courses to learn Java, Python, or JavaScript, you will find tons of classes. That's why we have tons of programmer who knows Java, Python, and JavaScript but when it comes to software development, system design, coding, and software design they often struggle.

To help my readers with this problem, I did some research and come up with this list of best Software/System design and Architecture online courses.

You can take these courses to build this powerful skill which will serve life long. Unlike programming languages, frameworks, and libraries, this skill also doesn't become outdated in a few years.

Btw, prepare to work hard. Just joining and the online course won't be enough as most of the people just join the course without actually completing it or doing what the instructor says.

You don't learn when you join an online course, you learn, when you work and apply the knowledge you have gained. That's where project-based courses shine. They encourage you to use your experience to solve real-world problems, and you will find a couple of such classes on this list.

15 Best System Design and Software Architecture Courses for  2024

Without wasting any more of your time, here is my list of some of the great, interactive, and fun online courses to learn Software design and Architecture. The list includes online courses to learn system design, software architecture, and object-oriented design from Udemy, Coursera, edX, and Educative platform. 

1. Mastering the System Design Interview by Frank Kane (Ex Amazon Hiring Manager)

This is another high-quality course to master the System design topic for coding interviews. In this best System design interview course from Udemy, you will practice working through real-world system design interview questions to learn essential system design concepts and tips. 

Here are the key skills you will learn in this 5-hour long best System design interview course:

• How to choose appropriate algorithms and data structures for system designs
• How to apply horizontal scaling to transactions, data storage, analytics, and databases
• How to structure your interview responses to ensure the best outcomes
• How to approach system design problems from the right angles, and with the right questions.
• How to address the soft skills your interviewer is secretly evaluating you on
• How to work with Big Data, Apache Spark, and Cloud computing. 

I am a big fan of Frank Kane's clear voice and the way he explains concepts which means it was a no-brainer to join this course and I must say I learned a lot. Even though I already have a fair idea of system design, I learned to see things from another perspective. 

The best thing about this course is that you will get insider tips for your system design interview from a former Amazon hiring manager, which is simply amazing, and if that's not enough you will also get  6 mock interviews for practice! 

If you are preparing for FAANG System design interviews like those asked in Amazon, Facebook, and Netflix then, I highly recommend you to join this course. 

Here is the link to join this best System Design Interview  course - Mastering the System Design Interview 

2. Grokking Modern System Design for Software Engineers & Managers on Educative

This is one of my favorite courses when it comes to learning Software Design or System design. It's actually created to prepare you for the System design interview, but you can also use it to learn how to approach System design in general.

The Grokking Modern System Design for Software Engineers Interview, is one of the first courses (or book) that describes the Large Scale Distributed System Design problems in detail. Even if you’ve worked on Distributed Systems before, there are a lot of things that you can learn from this course.

The authors have created this course to provide you design choices(including pros and cons) so that you can understand the requirement, compare approaches, and come up with the best solution for the problem at hand.

They are also mindful to not be overwhelmed with the information and provide a solution at a granularity that's appropriate for a 45-minute discussion. This makes the course very interesting. Even if you are not preparing for Coding interviews, I suggest you take this course to improve your System design skills.

Here is the link to join this best System design course - Grokking Modern System Design for Software Engineers

3. System Design Interview – An insider's guide [ByteByteGo] by Alex Hu

If you are preparing for System design interview or have done the preparation in the past then you must have come across System Design Interview – An insider's guide book by Alex Xu, one of the most popular System design book on Amazon with thousands of reviews and ratings. 

While both the part of this book are invaluable resource for learning System design, many people doesn't know that Alex also has a System design course on ByteByteGo, which not only cover all the content of his book but also new tutorials covering popular system design questions like how to design YouTube and How to design WhatsApp chat. 

If you are preparing for System design interview and like Alex Hu's system design book then I am sure you will love this software design course. 

4. System Design Interview Course by Exponent

Many people don't know that Exponent is one of the best website to go if you are preparing for FAANG interviews. They have helped many people succeed in Amazon and Microsoft PM, TPM, and Software Development Engineer role and they have specialized courses for Amazon, Facebook, and  Google. 

This is one of such courses where you will learn everything about how to answer System design questions on FAANG interviews. You will learn how to ace the system design interview with in-depth video examples, plus fundamental concepts on must-know topics like authentication, cloud architecture, and reliability. 

You will also learn to answer challenging system design questions like Design Twitter, Instagram, Parking lot, design a Web Crawler, and many other popular Software design questions. Overall a  perfect System design course  for engineers, managers, and architects.

But apart from the course they also provide mock interviews which is like real drill as well 1-to-1 coaching and interactive discussion on popular interview questions from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, and you can join them for just $12 a month now (70% discount). 

If you are preparing for System design interviews on FAANG companies then I highly recommend this course and website to you. 

5. Grokking the System Design Interview on Design Guru

This is one of my favorite System design course which was earlier available on Educative but now its moved exclusively on Designguru.io. This site is created by Arslan Ahmad , a former software engineer @ Facebook, Microsoft, Hulu and writer. 

This course not only give you solution of popular System design questions like how to design a chat system like WhatsApp or how to design a URL shortener but also a complete System Design template on how to approach and solve a system design problem. 

Apart from that its an interactive course where you can practice online right on your browser and it also got community support, but the best thing I liked about this course is the real case studies on various system design problem That's the real gem of this course. 

It also helped that creator of this course is people have not only worked in FAANG companies but also have unique opportunity to be as a candidate as well as hiring manager so not only they know what to ask but also how to answer.

In short, its one of the best place to learn system design and if you want to crack your system design interview with confidence, you should checkout this course.  Here is a also a nice system deign template or cheat sheet you can checkout from them

6. Software Design and Architecture Specialization [Coursera]

This is another, well-structured course to learn Software design and Architecture. It is offered by the University of Alberta and delivered by Kenny Wong. The specialization contains 5 online courses to teach you object-oriented design, design patterns, software architecture, and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).

The specialization also includes a project, and you will be awarded a certificate after completing the course. The best part of this specialization is that you will learn the science behind Software design and architecture.

Once you know the relevant patterns and principles, it would be much easier to communicate your plan with your fellow programmers and stakeholders. You will also gain the ability to critically view a software or piece of code from the design perspective.

7. Pragmatic System Design [Udemy Course]

This is another awesome course to prepare for a System Design interview and learn essential System Design concepts on Udemy. You will learn everything from preparing for system design interviews to architecting real-world systems 

This course is also designed in an incremental fashion which makes learning easier and effective Initially, you will learn essential concepts and components of system design after that you will learn a full-proof step-by-step procedure to tackle any system design problem. 

All the case studies are given in a comprehensive manner and are designed by following these steps. You will also learn things like how to design scalable systems, fault tolerance, high availability, and modular development. 

Here is the link to join this system design course on Udemy - Pragmatic System Design

8. System Design Interview Guide by Sandeep Kaul (Tech Lead @ Facebook)

This is another System Design interview preparation course on Udemy to help you crack your System Design interview. It covers a lot of real-world systems which can help you understand how some of the biggest systems in the world are designed. 

This course is taught by Sandeep Kaul an Engineer from Facebook and has helped many aspirants crack various FAANG companies. Since Sandeep himself comes from a FAANG company he knows what it takes to crack System Design interviews from FAANG companies and it shows in his course as well. 

Why this course is helpful:

1. It covers all of the frequently asked System Design questions and provides you with solutions to them which you can replicate in your interview, for example, how to design Uber, Airbnb, Amazon, WhatsApp, NetFlix, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Zoom, and Google Maps.
   
   
2. It’ll help you get a good grasp of various design decisions that you need to make in a System Design interview for example, how to choose the right database for your system. 
   
   
3. It also goes over the questions that your interviewer might ask you and how you should answer them.

In short, one of the best System Design courses to master the art of System design and also learn tricks to solve real-world system design questions. This System Design interview course will also help you structure your interview in a way that most interviewers expect and that increases the chances of clearing the interview. 

I highly recommend it to all kinds of developers, both beginners and experienced programmers who want to become software architects.

9. Data Structures and Software Design by edX

This System Design online course, part of the CS Essentials for Software Development Professional Certificate program, will take your skills to the next level by teaching you how to write “good” software that appropriately represents and organizes data, is easy to maintain, and is of high quality.

You will not only learn how to convert a set of requirements into a high-quality software design but also how to write efficient code that is easy to read, understand, and modify.

This is a great free course to learn software design and data structure, two of the essential skills for programmers and software developers. The course is 4-weeks long and requires 8-10 hours of effort weekly. The course also offers a certificate, but you need to pay for it.

10. Secure Software Design Specialization [Coursera]

Security is an essential concern of Modern software design, and this specialization is focused on teaching you how to design secure software. There are 4 courses in this Specialization that will not only show you practices of safe software design but also introduce you to tools and security threads and how to mitigate them.

Like other Coursera specializations, all four courses are free-to-audit, but you need to pay a small fee if you need a certificate of completion, something which you can add to your CV or LinkedIn profile.

This certificate gives you the right to show the world that you know about secure software design. The course is offered by the University of Colorado.

By the way, if you find Coursera courses useful, then I also suggest you join the Coursera Plus, a subscription plan from Coursera which gives you unlimited access to their most popular courses, specialization, professional certificate, and guided projects. It cost around $399/year but its complete worth your money as you get unlimited certificates

11. Java Programming: Principles of Software Design [Coursera]

This is an excellent course for Java programmer to learn the principles of Software design. In this course, you will learn how to solve real-world problems with Java using multiple classes.

You will also create programming solutions that scale using Java interfaces. Recognize that software engineering is more than writing code - it also involves logical thinking and design.

As part of the course, you will also enter a program that analyzes and sorts earthquake data and developed a predictive text generator. If you are a Java programmer, then I highly recommend this course for you.

It's also part of the Java Programming and Software Engineering Fundamentals Specialization, which has helped many programmers to start their Java careers.

12. Master Object-Oriented Design in Java - Homework + Solutions [Udemy]

One of the problems with Java developers is that they know how to code, but mostly they are not aware of how to write useful industry-standard object-oriented software. This course tries to fill that gap.

In this course, you will not only learn about object-oriented programming and design using abstract classes and interfaces but also about OOP design principles like SOLID and outline patterns and design patterns like Builder, Observer, and Decorator, which are vital for writing modular and flexible code.

The course also has assignments where you can apply the knowledge to design software from scratch, which is really great to truly master this valuable skill. The course has been created by Imtiaz Ahmad, one of the Udemy best seller instructors, and more than 19,363 students have already enrolled in this course.

13. Web Application & Software Architecture 101 [Educative.io]

This is another awesome course to learn about Software Architecture from Educative, an interactive, text-based online learning platform.  As the title suggests this course is a 101 on web application & software architecture. It walks you step by step through different components & concepts involved when designing the architecture of a web application. 

You’ll learn about various architectural styles such as the client-server, peer-to-peer decentralized architecture, microservices, and the fundamentals of data flow in a web application.

This course is also a great stepping stone to the fundamentals of system design. Knowledge of software architecture will prove to be very valuable for beginner programmers and those who are actively interviewing (especially full-stack developers).

Access to this course comes at no additional cost if you’ve already purchased an Educative subscription, which is currently available for just $14.99 per month on an annual plan, more than a 75% discount. This will give access to their 1000+ interactive and AI powered courses. 

14. Master the Coding Interview: System Design + Architecture on ZTM Academy

If you are looking for a bootcamp style System Design course to quickly refresh all essential System design concepts then this course from ZTM academy is the best one to start with. 

This is a comprehensive System Design course that aims to guide aspiring developers in advancing their careers and becoming Senior Software Engineers or Developers at top tech companies. Taught by industry expert Yihua, who has real-world experience working for major tech companies, this online course offers invaluable insights and insider tips for mastering system design.

The course focuses on developing a mental framework to think like a Senior Software Engineer, enabling students to analyze their work from a system design perspective. It covers various aspects, including evaluating different components and technologies in web applications, understanding considerations and trade-offs in building applications, and using the right system design and architecture to arrive at optimal solutions. The goal is to equip students with the skills necessary to ace system design interviews and build exceptional products and applications.

What sets  Master the Coding Interview: System Design + Architecture course by Zero to Mastery apart from other system design courses is its emphasis on seeing the bigger picture and executing on it. It goes beyond low-level coding and encourages students to understand the broader system they are a part of, fostering a deeper comprehension of the "why" behind their work. 

By providing a problem-solving framework and practical knowledge gained from Yihua's industry experience, the course empowers students to become better problem solvers and programmers.

Overall, one of the best online course to not just master System design concepts but also crack coding interviews on top tech companies and also progress to become senior software engineer.

Here is the link to join this course - Master the Coding Interview: System Design + Architecture

Btw, you would need a ZTM membership to watch this course which costs around $39 per month but also provides access to many super engaging and useful courses like this Python course. You can also use my code FRIENDS10 to get a 10% discount on any subscription you choose. 

15. Software Architecture & Design of Modern Large Scale Systems by Michael

If you are looking for an online course to learn about how to design modern large scale systems then this Udemy course is for you. If you want to become a Software Architect or Technical Lead in 2024 then the "Software Architecture & Design of Modern Large Scale Systems" course is a great starting point. 

Created by Michael Pogrebinsky, a Java and System design expert and a Software architect, this course is one of the Udemy bestseller and have a stellar rating of 4.7 out of 5 from 5,267 ratings, this course is curated for individuals aspiring to master software architecture, system design, and big data processing. 

The course covers critical aspects such as designing large-scale systems capable of handling millions of requests daily, creating highly scalable and available software systems, and applying industry-proven architectural patterns and best practices. 

The course includes 7 hours of on-demand video, 9 articles, 1 downloadable resource, and offers accessibility on both mobile and TV platforms, ensuring a flexible and enriching learning experience. Upon completion, you will also receive a certificate, showcasing you newfound expertise. 

With 39,902 students already enrolled, I was eager to delve into the comprehensive content created by the instructor and it didn't disappoint me. This is actually one of the best software architecture course for experienced developers and I highly recommend it to all Java programmers. 

That's all about some of the best courses to learn about software design and architecture. As I have said, investing time and effort in these skills goes a long way in your career and becoming a better software developer. They also help you to crack coding interviews because object-oriented design and system design are an integral part of programming job interviews. If you need some practice, you can also see the Grokking The System Design for Managers and Engineers course on Educative.


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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like these best software architecture and system design courses, then please share them with your friends and colleagues, they will appreciate it. If you have any questions or feedback, then please drop a note.

P. S. - If you are looking to learn Object-Oriented Programming and design, then you can also check out this list of free OOP online courses to build your foundations and fill gaps in your understanding. Learning OOP can also improve your coding sense and coding skill to convert a real world requirement into code.