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Software Architecture & System Design Practical Case Studies (Udemy.com)

Design Real-life Large Scale Systems, Practice Modern Software Architecture & Prepare for a System Design Interview

Created by: Michael Pogrebinsky

Last updated September 2026

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What you will learn

  • Apply Industry-Proven Software Architecture Patterns
  • Become a Software Architect or Technical Lead at your Company
  • Practice the System Design Process for your System Design Interview
  • Design Highly Scalable, Fault Tolerant and Performant Systems
  • Gain Invaluable Experience Architecting Real-life, Distributed, Large Scale Systems

How it compares

Against the other 413 rated Udemy courses in Graphic Design on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.8 out of 5higher than 91% of them
  • Reviews2,584#18 of 414 by number of reviews
  • Length4 hoursshorter than 59% of them
  • Last updatedSeptember 2026more recently than 97% of them

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Course Description

Do you want to gain real-life experience in modern Software Architecture and the design of Large Scale Systems?

Are you preparing for a System Design Interview and want to guarantee your success?

You came to the right place!

This course is a unique collection of Large Scale System Design Case Studies similar to real systems run by companies like Google, Amazon, Netflix, Meta, Slack, etc.

In each case study, we will:

  • Start with an ambiguous, high-level requirement to design and architect a brand new, real-life system.

  • Follow a methodical, step-by-step system design process.

  • Apply Industry-Proven Software Architecture techniques and patterns successfully used by top tech companies.

  • Finish with software architecture diagrams, well-defined technical requirements, and API.

Throughout the course, you will practice how to design and architect complex, large-scale systems that scale to millions of users and handle petabytes of data daily.

All the case studies were carefully picked to practice a wide range of software architecture techniques and patterns, which you can later apply to your projects or System Design Interviews.

By the end of the course, you will:

  • Be fully prepared for an upcoming System Design Interview.

  • Gain real practical experience in designing modern, highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and performant systems.

  • Have full confidence in applying the system design process to tackle any system design problem in real life.

This course is perfect for you if:

  • You already know the fundamentals of Software Architecture and want real, practical experience in designing complex, large-scale systems from scratch

  • You want to become a Software Architect / Cloud Architect or a senior member of technical staff, such as a Senior / Principal Software Engineer or Technical Lead.

  • You are preparing for a System Design Interview and want to stun your interviewer with the depth of your software architecture knowledge and stand out from other candidates who memorized different tricks and watched a bunch of YouTube videos.

So what are you waiting for? :)

Let's get started!


FAQ

- How is this course different from other System Design or Software Architecture courses?

Many courses teach the fundamental building blocks for system design and software architecture. However, just knowing those building blocks is not enough. Real-life large-scale systems are very complex, and designing them takes practice and experience. This course is all about practice and gaining that experience. So, when you are faced with a real project where you need to apply your software architecture and system design skills, you know exactly what to do and what process to follow.


- Does this course involve coding?

No! This course is on practical software architecture and system design, which is universal and is not tied to a specific programming language, cloud vendor, or technology stack. Throughout the course, you will master the important skill of thinking on a higher-level abstraction, which is critical for success in your company's system design interviews and technical leadership.


- Is this course only for Software Architects?

No! This course is for software engineers on any level who aspire to accelerate their career growth and practice software architecture and system design. This course is also perfect for people with technical leadership positions, such as Senior/Principle/Staff Engineers, Technical Leads, Technical Engineering Managers, or Software Architects, to practice and improve their skills. DevOps engineers, SREs, and QA engineers will also gain a lot of value from this course.


- Will this course cover any Cloud Computing concepts or Cloud Technologies?

Since in this course, we design and architect modern, large-scale systems, we use many cloud computing and distributed computing principles and patterns. Also, while this course doesn't cover any particular cloud vendor or technology, all the software architecture diagrams can easily be implemented and deployed on any cloud vendor, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Provider (GCP), Microsoft Azure, and so on. To help you with that, each section contains links and resources to the relevant cloud vendors' services and cloud technologies to help you apply the design to the relevant technology stack. Links to open-source solutions are also provided.

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Instructor Details

Michael Pogrebinsky

Michael Pogrebinsky is an experienced software architect and engineer and an accredited Certified Professional for Software Architecture trainer by the International Software Architecture Qualification Board (iSAQB).

As an official Udemy Instructor Partner, Michael has helped hundreds of thousands of engineers learn in-demand skills, get promoted, and land their dream job.

In his professional career, working for some of the top tech companies, like Google, Intel, Rubicon Project, DAQRI (Acquired by Snap Inc.), and others, Michael has led numerous flagship products. His expertise spans high-performance,  scalable distributed systems, video/audio streaming, augmented reality, and more.

Michael's teaching philosophy emphasizes understanding the core fundamentals and developing the right way of thinking and good practices.

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Reviews

4.8

2,584 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Bill Weiner on 10/7/2026

I love Michael’s teaching style… very consistent format for each section and always starting with “the motivation” for each section. This course was especially nice going through the same 5 step-by-step process for each of the case studies. I feel ready to try tackling my own design problems now using the same process!

By Šimon Ochotnický on 9/19/2026

The course was very well structured and easy to follow. I especially appreciated the logical approach to solving architecture problems — starting with functional requirements and gradually moving toward the final system design. A very practical and useful course.

By Munib Ahmad Faridi on 8/19/2026

Michael effort to explain software architecture goes to next level. in a very less period of time. he was able to explain the complexity, possibilities and give vision to see the software architecture. A useful course definitely

By Andrew Chen on 8/14/2026

This course is very comprehensive and will give you valuable insights into system design in the modern industry. I appreciate the efforts of the instructor and would highly recommend this course to you if you want to get prepared for an interview or want to build your own enterprise-grade application.

By Kostas Asproulakis on 7/4/2026

I really loved this course! The instructor is amazing at breaking down complex, large-scale system architecture into practical, step-by-step case studies without wasting any time. It’s straight to the point and incredibly helpful if you're gearing up for senior design interviews or just want to level up your architecture skills. The only downside for me was the audio level. The volume of the recordings is super low, and even with my master volume turned all the way up, it was really hard to hear clearly through my headphones. If you're in a noisy environment, you might struggle a bit. Aside from the sound issue, the actual content is a 5/5. Highly recommended!

By Sidesazama Tokwe on 7/2/2026

The presenter makes it easier to follow his content as he has structured approach. I am benefitting a lot from his architecture process as it follows the step-by-step approach to designing systems

By Francesco Cossu on 5/29/2026

The course is well structured and engaging, covering system design fundamentals clearly. My main suggestion would be to include more content on resilience and failure scenarios. In many real-world system design interviews, discussing how systems behave during outages is often at the core of the conversation. For example, patterns like the Outbox Pattern, idempotency, retries, and failure recovery strategies should have more space.

By Margarita Nemirovskaia on 2/19/2026

The course was highly engaging, with unique and original case studies covering a wide range of topics. I especially appreciated learning additional concepts like geohash and codecs. I also really liked the pace and overall structure of the course. It provides a clear, practical framework for breaking down ambiguous problems and approaching System Design interviews with confidence and clarity. Thank you very much for creating such valuable and insightful content!

By Evgenia Noidou on 1/24/2026

Thank you for all your content. I watched most of your courses and have really upskilled as a senior developer, engineer and architect. These courses are not intended for junior developers as it has more advaced concepts (my personal opinion) but it is a must if you are going for a promotion

By Yusuf Dogan on 1/23/2026

I had couple days left to my interview and this course was actually what I wanted right at this moment. I would still watch this course even if I was starting out the system design journey since you can see the steps and the journey that you should take in a short amount of time. And you can research on specific parts mentioned in the course, thank you for your efford!

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Overall Score : 96 / 100