Guide

Systems Design Lab is a local practice environment for core systems-design ideas. Each module introduces a concept, starts the smallest useful set of local services, and gives you commands that make the behavior observable.

How It Works

Most runnable modules follow this shape:

make <module-name>
./modules/<module-name>/demo.sh

For example:

make caching
./modules/caching/demo.sh

Use AUTO=1 to run many demos without pauses:

AUTO=1 ./modules/caching/demo.sh

Base Architecture

client -> edge gateway -> application service -> data access layer -> durable store

The concrete base lab implements that path as:

curl/browser -> Nginx gateway -> URL-shortener app -> database access layer -> relational database

The repo uses Docker Compose profiles so lessons add only the infrastructure they need. That keeps the local footprint small and keeps each module focused on one design mechanism.

Requirements

• Docker Desktop or Docker Engine with Compose v2
• make
• curl
• bash
• Node.js for local documentation commands and a few scripts

Optional but useful:

• jq for JSON output
• k6 for local load testing, though make load runs it through Docker

Common Commands

make help                         # list targets
make base                         # start the base request path
make scale N=3                    # scale stateless app replicas
make load                         # run the k6 smoke load through the gateway
make <module-name>                # start services for one module
make validate-profile PROFILE=dns # validate one runnable module
make validate                     # validate runnable modules sequentially
make reset                        # stop containers and remove volumes

For the full repository README, see the source on GitHub.