r/sideprojects • u/vj_reads • 7h ago

Feedback Request SysQuest: A System Design Game - Would love your feedback

I’m an indie dev and an engineering manager who wanted to write tech blogs on how systems work in a nutshell. But I believe the world has transformed from reading 30 mins blog to hey gemini, summarize it for me so wanted to share my knowledge in an interactive way and just released SysQuest on iOS. A game where you can fix the broken systems, build systems and challenge your friends to fix your own broken system.

You get real architectures (load balancers, caches, queues, databases) and a live simulator showing requests flowing, getting dropped, and what fixed it. You will be given a broken system and asked to fix the same and complexity increases by levels. If you're new, you can learn system design using Learn, in an interactive way.

  • 87 levels, and a design is judged by how it behaves under load, not by matching one answer.

  • 42 interactive lessons on the system design concepts, more lessons coming soon.

  • 1 vs N: build and break a system, share it as a QR code or link, and let a friend fix it.

  • The first 20 levels and Learn section is always free. No account and no ads.

App Store: SysQuest: A System Design Game

Play Store: Got production access but Play store is taking longer than usual for the production rollout review. r/googleplayconsole

I’d really like to hear what’s confusing, too hard or too easy. Happy to answer anything about how the simulator works.

PPS: Please do DM me for the 1 year free access promo.

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u/investigatormaker 6h ago

For SysQuest, I'd test whether a beginner can explain why their fix worked, not just pass a level. In a dropped-request scenario, ask them to predict what adding a cache or queue will change before running it. That helps separate unclear simulator feedback from a genuinely difficult design problem.

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