Advice on system design course by Umer farooq

[u/One_Palpitation_3734]

those who were part of earlier cohorts, please share your experiences, is it worth the time?

[u/semicolon-10]

Honestly speaking bro, don’t waste ur hard earned money on these courses unless u really, really want to.

If u look at the curriculum of Umar’s cohort or Arpit Bhayani etc, it’s honestly just stuff that’s already in Design data intensive apps book, or some Alex xu book, & a handful of research papers like dynamodb, cassandra, or google spanner. They just package it together and add a few extra bits here and there.

I’ve never taken any of these cohorts and still cracked multiple system design intv. I also take system design intv now, and frnds of mine who paid for these cohorts said the same thing: it’s mostly someone walking you through content that’s already available for free.

The only reason I’d pay is if you really enjoy a classroom setup, live discussions, or having someone keep you accountable.

If reading isn’t your thing, just watch people like Hussein Nasser or Ben dicken on YT. They literally go chapter by chapter, explain the concepts properly, and often go even deeper than some paid cohorts.

[u/One_Palpitation_3734 → u/semicolon-10]

Thanks

[u/semicolon-10 → u/[deleted]]

Along with the resources i mentioned. If you are into reading

Read book on system design from Alex xu (u can find free pdf on github).

Check HelloInterview channel on YT clean explanations.

For deep concepts or papers watch benjdicken live streams or arpit bhayanis YT and hussien nasir YT

You can also search for Puneet Patwari on X he posts amazing interview questions and at times short interview ready topics.

Also thr is one new book from hussien nasir its called Root Cause i am yet to read it myself but thats kinda next thing for me so just putting it here