5 Must-Have System Design Cheat Sheets for Interviews

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image_credit - ByteByteGo

Hello Devs, suppose you are preparing for Interviews or have gone through one. In that case, you may know that System design interviews are often the most challenging part of the technical hiring process, especially for mid to senior-level software engineers.

Unlike coding interviews that test algorithmic thinking, system design interviews evaluate your ability to build scalable, reliable, and maintainable systems in the real world. And let’s face it—without a structured approach, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds.

Even experienced developers struggle to solve common questions like how to design WhatsApp or YouTube, or answer the difference between API Gateway vs Load Balancer and Horizontal vs Vertical Scaling, Forward proxy vs reverse proxy.

That’s where cheat sheets and concise guides come in. Whether you're just getting started with system design or looking to refine your interview strategy, having the right set of resources can make all the difference.

These guides help you break down complex topics like scalability, caching, load balancing, and database choices into digestible frameworks that you can apply confidently during interviews.

Earlier, I have shared 11 best System Design Interview resources and in this article, I am going to share 5 of the most helpful and practical system design cheat sheets and guides that every engineer should know before stepping into the interview room.

Each one is designed to simplify concepts, speed up your preparation, and give you an edge when it matters most.

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5 System Design Interview Cheat Sheets, Templates and Guides

Here are three of the best System Design cheat sheets, RoadMaps, Blueprints, and Templates you can find online:

1. System Design Blueprint by Love Sharma and ByteByteGo on Medium

This System design blueprint is created by Love Sharma, a tech enthusiast and experienced software engineer, in collaboration with ByteByteGo, one of my favorite places to learn System Design.

This System Design blueprint offers a practical and insightful approach to system design. This template provides a step-by-step guide to designing scalable and fault-tolerant systems.

It covers various aspects, including DNS, Load Balancing, Scalability, system requirements, architecture, data storage, communication protocols, and performance optimization.

Love Sharma's System design blueprint also includes a lot of useful information on sections, including best practices and explanations, helping readers understand the practical application of system design principles.

If you are preparing for System design interview, you can also checkout ByteByteGo, one of the great platform for System design interview preparation by Alex Xu author of popular System Design Interview --- An insider's guide Book, I have read both volume 1 and 2 and they are truly awesome, I highly recommend to anyone who want to learn System design irrespective of interviews.

Also, here is the System Design blueprint I was talking bout, this is worth reading and printing to stick on your desktop:

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2. System Design Interview Cheat Sheet by Educative

Educative is renowned for its comprehensive technical courses, and their System Design Cheat Sheet lives up to the platform's reputation.

This cheat sheet provides a concise overview of the key components and considerations involved in system design, which are critical for any System design interview.

It covers topics such as data partitioning, load balancing, caching, database choices, and communication protocols. The cheat sheet offers clear explanations, diagrams, and examples, making it an excellent resource for beginners and experienced engineers alike.

And, if you want, you can check out Educative's awesome Grokking Modern System Design for Software Engineers & Managers, one of the most up-to-date and comprehensive courses for System design interviews.

Also, here is the amazing System Design Interview cheat sheet by Educative , which is definitely worth reading and printing:

You can either join this course alone or get an Educative subscription to not just get access to this course but also more than 1200+ courses on all kind of programming and development technologies, including interviews.

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3. System Design Template from DesignGurus.io

DesignGuru's System Design Template is a comprehensive and structured approach to system design. This template guides engineers through the entire system design process, from defining requirements to evaluating trade-offs.

This template is created by Arslan Ahmad, founder of DesignGurus.io. It covers essential aspects such as system architecture, data modeling, scalability, fault tolerance, and security.

The template provides a systematic framework that ensures engineers consider all necessary aspects while designing robust and scalable systems.

And, if you want more, you can also check out Grokking the System Design Interview course, one of the most popular System Design courses online on DesignGuru. It was earlier available on Educative but now it's only available on DesignGurus.io.

And, here is the System Design Template from DesignGuru which is another great resource to learn bout System Design concepts:

DesignGuru also offers Mock Interviews for Coding interview and System Design interview, if you are serious about your preparation for FAANG interview, I highly recommend you to go for a Mock interview or 1 to 1 session with Arslan or one of his team members.

They have worked on FAANG and also take interviews, so whatever they share is truly valuable. Also, you are not going to get interview chances on Google and Microsoft every day, so make sure you give your best shot and use all the resources you can to crack the interview on the first attempt.

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4. System Design Cheat Sheet by ByteByteGo

This is another System Design Cheat Sheet which is designed by ByteByteGo, one of the best places to prepare fora System design interview.

This system design interview cheat sheet encapsulates crucial concepts related to ensuring high availability, high throughput, and high scalability in a system.

Addressing the need for "4 nines" uptime (99.99%), the cheat sheet delves into redundancy strategies such as hot-hot, hot-warm, single-leader, and leaderless clusters, emphasizing fault tolerance through data replication. To tackle high throughput, it advocates employing caching mechanisms, optimizing thread utilization, and identifying and alleviating performance bottlenecks, with asynchronous processing as an effective tool for isolating resource-intensive tasks.

High scalability considerations involve both horizontal and vertical extensions, with response time monitoring guiding decisions on system scaling.

The cheat sheet serves as a comprehensive visual aid, highlighting the critical role of redundancy, caching, and efficient scaling mechanisms in fortifying system resilience and responsiveness.

This sheet effectively complements ByteByteGo System design course, which is one of the valuable resources for system design interviews.

Here is the System Design Cheat Sheet you can print:

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5. System Design Interview Cheat Sheet by Exponent

This is another awesome System Design Interview Cheat Sheet you can refer to learn key System design concepts before interviews. This System design cheat sheet covers interview frameworks, API Design Choices, and Scalability concepts.

It's designed by Exponent , a dedicated website for tech interview preparations, which I accidentally found while looking for system design interview resources.

Renowned for its specialized courses like System Design Interview Course, Exponent stands out as a valuable resource for those seeking to enhance their skills in areas such as system design, engineering

Conclusion

That's all about the 5 best System Design cheat sheets, roadmaps, guides, and templates you can review before your tech interviews. System design is a critical skill for software engineers, and having reliable resources at hand can significantly enhance the design process.

The System Design Cheat Sheet from Educative, the System Design Template from DesignGurus.io, and the System Design Template from Love Sharma on Medium are the three most valuable resources that offer different approaches to system design.

Whether you prefer a concise overview, a structured template, or a practical step-by-step guide, these cheat sheets provide valuable insights, examples, and best practices to improve your system design skills.

By leveraging these resources, you can not only enhance your ability to design scalable, efficient, and robust software systems but also do well on interviews.

Thanks for reading this article so far. If you know any other excellent online resources like websites or programming platforms to learn System Design and Software Designing, especially for beginners, which you think complements these two websites, then feel free to share.

Everybody loves great resources and happy learning System design.

P. S. --- If you are looking for the best online course to learn System Design in depth then I also suggest you to check out Frank Kane's Mastering the System Design Interview course on Udemy. Frank is an ex-hiring manager and know what it takes to crack the System design interview of those big FAANG companies.

Alternatively , you can also join Alex Yu's System Design Interview --- An insider's guide and ByteByteGo for a complete System design Interview preparation.