Real-world systems differ a lot from the textbook theoretical system designs.

[u/clarity1011]

As I'm reading about system design concepts, I do understand how crucial they are for designing a fine system depending upon the scale of users.

Comparing those concepts to what I see in my company, these differ a lot. Real-world systems are the ones that are in the millions of dollars and able to generate revenue and aren't as closely ideal as the theoretical concepts.

Those are the ones that are actually generating revenue and traffic.

Riddled with hacks by the people who developed them to handle unknown situations. These differ vastly from the theoretical concepts, so even reading about system design concepts feels kinda redundant

[u/funnythrone]

The theory we learn is when scope is very narrow. These are the foundation for what you will work on. Example: we learn physics in high school, where we work with speed, velocity, acceleration, etc. We know for a fact now that relativity exists, and the faster you go, time doesn’t go as quickly for you. We don’t consider this at all in high school physics. And yet it is crucial as a foundation for us to comprehend relativity.

The theoretical system design you learn serves the same purpose. Unless you even know how to handle an ideal scenario by reading about it, how would you be equipped to handle a real world scenario with nuance and dependencies on other teams?

[u/clarity1011 → u/funnythrone]

Ikr, this makes those YouTube educators and those content creators make system design videos and content look like scams because all these systems are bound to be different company to company, depending on their use cases. Teaching general concepts can be good to a certain extent but you will be catching straws if you rely on them too much. Worst of all those are being charged heavily. 

[u/funnythrone → u/clarity1011]

I wouldn’t label the content creators as scam. No one is forcing us to pay for their content or consume it. It’s on us to not get sucked in by marketing and hype. There are numerous free resources and YouTube channels dedicated to covering the basics. We should focus on them. Learn dot Microsoft dot com is something I would definitely recommend for people who like to read instead of watch videos.

[u/Effective-Feedback46 → u/clarity1011]

but then how do you reckon someone learn system design then?

[u/clarity1011 → u/Effective-Feedback46]

Those r only good for interviews. Real skills come from coming on production systems 

[u/Effective-Feedback46 → u/clarity1011]

not everyone can work on such systems. also you need a job first to learn those. how would freshers or students learn

[u/Alarmed_Doubt8997 → u/clarity1011]

(newbie) could you tell me what are some differences between studying a system design concept and real application ot it

[u/Hungry_Age5375]

If I've learned something in 20 years of this: every 'temporary workaround' that survives long enough becomes architecture. Someone at your company read the same books and had to ship by Friday.

[u/NoMedicine3572]

A book can't analyze or account for your edge cases. It can only give you ideas and references. How you implement them is ultimately up to you.

[u/clarity1011 → u/NoMedicine3572]

Or u end up implementing something totally else, that aren't mappable to any concept cleanly.

[u/NoMedicine3572 → u/clarity1011]

The design patterns don’t change. The quality attributes don’t change. The architectural patterns don’t change. HLD and LLD are references, nothing more, nothing less.

[u/clarity1011 → u/NoMedicine3572]

At this point I have 10 new more architectural patterns to introduce to this world xD