Top System Design books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite System Design books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of System Design

Understanding the concepts of System Design starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

Systems Analysis and Design

Systems Analysis and Design

Systems Analysis and Design: An Object-Oriented Approach with UML, 5th Edition by Dennis, Wixom, and Tegarden captures the dynamic aspects of the field by keeping students focused on doing SAD while presenting the core set of skills that every systems analyst needs to know today and in the future. The text enables students to do SAD—not just read about it, but understand the issues so they can…

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System Design Interview - An Insider's Guide: Volume 2

System Design Interview - An Insider's Guide: Volume 2

System Design Interview - An Insider's Guide (Volume 2) This book can be seen as a sequel to the book: System Design Interview - An Insider’s Guide. It covers a different set of system design interview questions and solutions. Although reading Volume 1 is helpful, it is not required. This book should be accessible to readers who have a basic understanding of distributed systems. This volume pr…

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Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World

Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World

This groundbreaking text presents a balanced focus on concepts and techniques from both traditional systems analysis and the newer object-oriented approach, to provide the most complete, up-to-date coverage of systems analysis and design with a minimum of extraneous information and outdated theory. The emphasis is therefore placed on fundamentals of lasting value rather than on details of only…

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Systems analysis and design Alan Dennis

Systems analysis and design Alan Dennis

Systems Analysis and Design, 8th Edition offers students a hands-on introduction to the core concepts of systems analysis and systems design. Following a project-based approach written to mimic real-world workflow, the text includes a multitude of cases and examples, in-depth explanations, and special features that highlight crucial concepts and emphasize the application of fundamental theory …

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System Design Interview - An Insider's Guide

System Design Interview - An Insider's Guide

System design interviews are the most difficult to tackle of all technical interview questions. This book is Volume 1 of the System Design Interview - An insider’s guide series that provides a reliable strategy and knowledge base for approaching a broad range of system design questions. This book provides a step-by-step framework for how to tackle a system design question. It includes many rea…

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Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time

Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time

Today, software engineers need to know not only how to program effectively but also how to develop proper engineering practices to make their codebase sustainable and healthy. This book emphasizes this difference between programming and software engineering. How can software engineers manage a living codebase that evolves and responds to changing requirements and demands over the length of its…

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Additional System Design Reading

These books are not required for you to learn System Design, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems

Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems

Data is at the center of many challenges in system design today. Difficult issues need to be figured out, such as scalability, consistency, reliability, efficiency, and maintainability. In addition, we have an overwhelming variety of tools, including relational databases, NoSQL datastores, stream or batch processors, and message brokers. What are the right choices for your application? How do …

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Clean Architecture: A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design

Clean Architecture: A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design

By applying universal rules of software architecture, you can dramatically improve developer productivity throughout the life of any software system. Now, building upon the success of his best-selling books Clean Code and The Clean Coder, legendary software craftsman Robert C. Martin (“Uncle Bob”) reveals those rules and helps you apply them. Martin’s Clean Architecture doesn’t merely present …

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Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

Developers of enterprise applications (e.g reservation systems, supply chain programs, financial systems, etc.) face a unique set of challenges, different than those faced by their desktop system and embedded system peers. For this reason, enterprise developers must uncover their own solutions. In this new book, noted software engineering expert Martin Fowler turns his attention to enterprise …

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Software Architecture in Practice

Software Architecture in Practice

The award-winning and highly influential Software Architecture in Practice, Third Edition, has been substantially revised to reflect the latest developments in the field. In a real-world setting, the book once again introduces the concepts and best practices of software architecture―how a software system is structured and how that system’s elements are meant to interact. Distinct from the deta…

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Modern Systems Analysis and Design

Modern Systems Analysis and Design

Complex, challenging, and stimulating, this book addresses information system analysis and design;; it is full of information that shows the organizational process that a team of business and systems professionals use to develop and maintain computer-based information systems. It stresses the importance of responding to and anticipating problems through innovative uses of information technolog…

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Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach

Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach

Salary surveys worldwide regularly place software architect in the top 10 best jobs, yet no real guide exists to help developers become architects. Until now. This book provides the first comprehensive overview of software architecture’s many aspects. Aspiring and existing architects alike will examine architectural characteristics, architectural patterns, component determination, diagramming …

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