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The qualities of engineers who thrive even in the AI era: mastering system design at major U.S. tech companies, algorithmic thinking, and open-source practice.

A comprehensive course covering AI-era-proof Silicon Valley internships, 30 big-tech system designs, and hands-on open-source contributions. Using real-world cases from Netflix, Tesla, Meta, Tinder, and other big tech companies, you’ll design and scale 30 practical system designs. Finally, you’ll design your own service from architecture to database to scaling.

(4.6) 27 reviews

530 learners

Level Intermediate

Course period Unlimited

DBMS/RDBMS
DBMS/RDBMS
software-design
software-design
system-design
system-design
AI
AI
ood
ood
DBMS/RDBMS
DBMS/RDBMS
software-design
software-design
system-design
system-design
AI
AI
ood
ood

Reviews from Early Learners

4.6

5.0

Chanuk

100% enrolled

I listened to the lecture carefully. The technical content was explained in a friendly and easy-to-understand way, so it felt like a skilled senior was teaching me. Personally, I had a few regrets. First, the sound was too low and the sound quality was not good, so it was difficult to listen to the lecture. There was a lot of explanation about the API specifications, but I felt it was unnecessary for me. Instead, I wish there had been a more in-depth explanation of system design methodology and scaling. In such cases, what components can be considered, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each (although it was explained in Section 2), and what problems and improvements might arise during actual use. Despite this, it was a lecture that I learned a lot from. The instructor said that he would continue to update the lecture and lecture materials, and that he would improve the lecture quality by using a high-quality microphone in the future, so I look forward to it.

5.0

놀란 거북이

51% enrolled

It was great to learn how to design systems to solve complex problems through various corporate cases! It was fun to learn concepts with examples, and I could understand in which situations the concepts would be used. Visualizing the design with Excalidraw was also a great help in learning! Thank you for the great lecture.

5.0

주아아빠

9% enrolled

This is the first time I've had a good design lecture in Korea. The content is really good. Please record the next lecture with the audio a little louder. I look forward to other good lectures. Be healthy and happy.

What you will gain after the course

  • Backend

  • Database Design

  • OOD Design

  • System Design

  • AI Agent

  • Open source

Design 30 systems from Netflix, Tesla, Meta, and Tinder yourself within 6 weeks,

A course that lets you complete everything in one go, including an open-source portfolio.

3 Things You’ll Definitely Take Away from This Course

1. Hands-on system design experience with 30 Big Tech systems

- Netflix · Tesla FSD · Meta · Spotify · CI/CD pipelines, etc.

- Practice distributed systems, databases, caches, MQs, failure recovery, and scaling at the level of real interviews

2. Design your own service from architecture to database to scaling

- Quantify SLOs → Define requirements → Architecture → Data model → Scaling plan

- A template is provided so the final project can be included in your portfolio/resume.

3. Contribute a PR to an open-source AI coding agent in active operation

  • Download to the Rust-based CLI agent (Snailer)

    Submit at least one PR,

    Upon your first PR merge, receive Collaborator access and gain practical OSS experience you can include on your résumé.


🚀 The system design secrets of Silicon Valley big tech.

Silicon Valley Interview Revealed
At Stanford, I interviewed the author of the AI newsletter “Noon Oji,” who is a former JoCoding student. This covers how I am applying the system design from this course to the startup I currently operate in Silicon Valley.
👉 Full EO article interview: Secrets of People Who Can’t Be Replaced, Learned in Silicon Valley (For Developers)

Threads

https://www.threads.com/@noon.oji/post/DPxfkalEa70?xmt=AQF0d1--rNTDuzz4FWPsK-AD5DjZPI-3A73KvjLY1ERCkQ&slof=1

The System Design Secrets of Silicon Valley Big Tech. Using Tesla FSD, Netflix streaming, and Meta infrastructure as case studies, you will learn distributed systems, DBs, scaling, and interview preparation through practical, real-world applications.
In the final project, you will design your own service and complete everything from quantifying SLOs → architecture → data modeling → scaling.
Outstanding projects will be featured as references on Thread(3.8K+)/Substack(420+), providing powerful evidence for your portfolio and résumé. If you wish, your LinkedIn résumé link can also be featured, becoming direct evidence for recruiters.

Through interview experiences with various major U.S. tech companies, including Apple, Meta, Tesla, and Snapchat, I came to deeply realize that U.S. global companies handle more than terabytes of data while constantly thinking about their users. As a result, the bar has risen at U.S. global companies when evaluating 1,000 or even 10,000+ resumes, making algorithm and system design skills increasingly important.

Additionally, those currently working on side projects alone will be able to proactively determine what kind of system design would make for a strong portfolio.

Through small-group training with engineers from various big tech companies such as Apple, Google, Netflix, Meta, and OpenAI, as well as pair programming and discussion-based classes with talented individuals trained in the United States, India, China, and other countries, I received instruction in curricula covering system design, algorithms, frontend development, database design, OOD, and more. Drawing on my experience interviewing with companies such as Apple, Tesla, and Meta, I created a hands-on course based on real-world systems. By sharing this with you, my vision and purpose for this course is to empower engineers in the United States, China, and Korea—at a time when the U.S. and China are engaged in a technological war for AI supremacy—not to merely borrow and use existing recipes, but to understand the essence of the fundamentals and build new things themselves.

Features of This Course

- Global service design

- Netflix, Tesla FSD, Spotify, CI/CD pipelines, etc.

We take an in-depth look at real-world cases, exploring “how they were designed and what trade-offs were chosen.”

- Database & Object-Oriented Design

- RDBMS vs NoSQL, sharding/indexing, caching strategies, and OOD design principles

Practice with hands-on examples.

- Machine Learning System Design (NEW)

- Using a Tesla FSD-style pipeline (training → deployment → monitoring) as an example

Explains the architecture for deploying ML models to production.

- Large-Scale Traffic Scaling & Failure Recovery Design

- LB, CDN, MQ, Redis/Cache, Blob(S3), WebSocket, Proxy, Telemetry, etc.

Structure it to a level that you can explain in an interview.

- Ongoing Q&A / Additional learning materials provided for one year

- You can freely ask questions about system design even after completing the course

- Scenarios and algorithm content to prepare for FAANG and U.S./Korean company interviews, with a free one-year membership.


🔥 Special Learning Materials Promotion: 1-Year Membership Provided Free of Charge Support

  • FAANG, U.S. AI companies, or Korea’s Naver, Kakao, Coupang, and other top tech companies: past interview questions and interview strategies provided

  • Practical, scenario-based system design and algorithm content provided






Recommended for those who:

- Those preparing for employment or a career change in Korea who want to reach the level of system design interviews at Silicon Valley big tech companies

- Job seekers and junior developers without real-world service design/operations and open-source contribution experience worth adding to their resumes

- Those preparing for a lead/architect position that requires designing a new service from scratch

- Those who have only thought, “I’d like to take a shot at a U.S. or global company at least once,” but haven’t taken action yet

- Those who want to challenge themselves to achieve an Algorithm Leetcode rating of 1800+ - Free one-year membership provided through the special learning materials promotion



While preparing for interviews, you may encounter moments like this.
You can solve problems to some extent, but why do your explanations get tangled and your designs fall apart in an actual interview?

The newly added Code Craft Interviews is
a feature designed not for simple LeetCode-style problems, but to let you practice OOP / API-focused problems that could come up in real big-tech interviews, following the interview flow.

This is not simply about submitting the correct code.
You will practice thinking and answering in the following order, just as you would in a real interview.

  • Requirements summary

  • API design

  • Happy Path Implementation

  • Validation / Error Handling

  • Tests

  • Explain trade-offs

In other words, it’s not “practice solving problems”
but rather practice thinking and explaining yourself like a good engineer in front of an interviewer.

The problems are based on real-world scenarios in the style of DoorDash, Uber, Netflix, Spotify, Amazon, and Meta, and
we designed them so you can practice in Python / Java / Kotlin / C++.

In addition to Code Craft Interviews, we also provide
AI resume analysis reports, personalized position recommendations, algorithm solution code analysis,
and even a feature that lets you draw system design problems directly as diagrams and learn the design process together with AI.

It is especially well-suited for people like these.

  • Those who can solve algorithm problems to some extent but struggle with practical coding interviews

  • Those who find interviews that evaluate not only their coding but also their code quality, design, and ability to explain themselves daunting

  • Those who want to train their thought process for actual success, beyond simply solving problems

Rather than a service that simply offers lots of practice problems,
we wanted to create a training environment where you can practice in a way that closely resembles actually passing the interview.

bigtechinterview.com



Recommended for people like these

Developers & Students

Developers/college students preparing for employment or a job change at big tech/global or domestic companies

Lead Developer & Architect
Lead developers/architects who need to design a new service from scratch

Curious about the design process.
Those who want to demonstrate differentiated system design skills in interviews

- In interviews, you can explain your design by defining SLOs numerically and identifying points of failure and bottlenecks.

- Based on more than 30 practical system design examples, you can answer scalability and reliability design questions while discussing trade-offs.

- You can document your own service from requirements → architecture → database design → scaling plan and include it in your portfolio.

- Include actual PR links/evidence from contributing to an open-source AI coding agent with 16K+ cumulative downloads.

You can include it on your résumé and LinkedIn.

- If desired, I can feature outstanding designs as references on my Threads / Substack / community channels so they can be used in your resume portfolio.

You will work on a project to design your own service from start to finish as the final course project.
Outstanding designs will be featured as official references.

(So that you can add it to your resume or portfolio)

Upon consent, on the Thread channel (4.5K+) and Substack (470+ paid newsletter subscribers)

We will feature you as a reference for excellent design.
If you wish, we will also promote your LinkedIn/resume link. (Including subscriber communities from major companies such as Kakao and CJ)

Update: Real-World Silicon Valley Applications & Open-Source Track


- Currently over 18K cumulative downloads - a Rust-based CLI AI coding agent (Claude Code/Codex workflow) is currently in production.

- We are making the agent available as a Public Repo so that students can make open-source contributions.

- The Open Source Contribution Guide course has also been added.

Career Benefits

- Once your first PR is merged, you receive Collaborator permissions (branch protection

,PR required) granted → provided with examples of how to list it on your resume/portfolio

- Secure demonstrable evidence (documents, diagrams, OSS contributions) directly relevant to getting a job or changing jobs.

Feel free to leave your questions in the Q&A section. Your designs may be cited as real-world references!

The person who created this course

  • Silicon Valley Survivor | American Snail 

    Drawing on experience and expertise gained at the forefront of the Global Tech Scene, this course shows non-majors how to overcome technical barriers and become the owners of their businesses.

    • Current) Founder of a Silicon Valley AI coding agent startup

      • Operating the self-developed AI tool 'Snailer CLI' (18K+ downloads)

      • Selected for the Google for Startups Program

    • Formerly an engineer at a major U.S. tech company and promising startups

      • Gave up the Amazon final round to start a company

      • Silicon Valley AI Fintech Startup Engineer

      • OpenAI / Meta / Apple / Adobe / Amazon Full-Stack Fellowship

      • Domestic search engine portal, fintech development

      • AI startup AR/B2B/SDK development

    • Proven teaching expertise


Notes Before Taking the Course

Practice environment

  • Excalidraw

  • Github


Learning Materials

  • The materials will be provided as a PPT.

Prerequisite Knowledge and Notes

  • Practice Environment

    • Operating systems and versions (OS): Windows, macOS, Linux, Ubuntu, Android, iOS, etc.—types and versions of operating systems

    • Tool used: Excalidraw website diagramming tool

  • Learning materials

    • PPT

  • Prerequisite knowledge


    • Computer Science

Recommended for
these people

Who is this course right for?

  • Those who want to join a Silicon Valley Big Tech company

  • Those who need a new service designed

  • Those seeking greater growth as a developer

  • Those preparing to enter the workforce or looking to change jobs

Need to know before starting?

  • Computer Science

Hello
This is americasnail

Inflearn Verified

1,949

Learners

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Reviews

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Answers

4.4

Rating

8

Courses

  • Silicon Valley Survivor | American Snail

    Drawing on experience and expertise gained at the forefront of the Global Tech Scene, I show non-majors how to overcome technical barriers and become the owners of their businesses.

    • Current) Founder of a Silicon Valley AI coding agent startup

      • Operating the internally developed AI tool 'Snailer CLI' (18K+ downloads)

      • Selected for the Google for Startups Program

    • Former engineer at U.S. big tech companies and promising startups

      • Gave up Amazon’s final-stage opportunity to found a startup

      • Silicon Valley AI Fintech Startup Engineer

      • OpenAI / Meta / Apple / Adobe / Amazon Full-Stack Fellowship

      • Domestic search engine portal, fintech development

      • AI startup AR/B2B/SDK development

    • Proven educational expertise

      • Dual major in Computer Engineering and Business Administration at a four-year university in Seoul, with extensive startup experience

      • Over 1,800 students taught cumulatively, with 4.5K+ followers on SNS Threads and 470+ Substack followers.

More

Curriculum

All

74 lectures ∙ (29hr 3min)

Course Materials:

Lecture resources
Published: 
Last updated: 

Reviews

All

27 reviews

4.6

27 reviews

  • luc77y님의 프로필 이미지
    luc77y

    Reviews 7

    Average Rating 5.0

    5

    51% enrolled

    It was great to learn how to design systems to solve complex problems through various corporate cases! It was fun to learn concepts with examples, and I could understand in which situations the concepts would be used. Visualizing the design with Excalidraw was also a great help in learning! Thank you for the great lecture.

    • americasnail
      Instructor

      Hello! Thank you for enjoying the lecture and leaving a good review. We will continue to strive to provide more useful lectures in the future.

  • aicodinglabpro님의 프로필 이미지
    aicodinglabpro

    Reviews 51

    Average Rating 5.0

    5

    9% enrolled

    This is the first time I've had a good design lecture in Korea. The content is really good. Please record the next lecture with the audio a little louder. I look forward to other good lectures. Be healthy and happy.

    • americasnail
      Instructor

      Thank you for taking the class. I will continue to strive to provide better lectures in the future :) I hope you always stay healthy and have a good day.

  • narciso님의 프로필 이미지
    narciso

    Reviews 44

    Average Rating 5.0

    5

    100% enrolled

    I listened to the lecture carefully. The technical content was explained in a friendly and easy-to-understand way, so it felt like a skilled senior was teaching me. Personally, I had a few regrets. First, the sound was too low and the sound quality was not good, so it was difficult to listen to the lecture. There was a lot of explanation about the API specifications, but I felt it was unnecessary for me. Instead, I wish there had been a more in-depth explanation of system design methodology and scaling. In such cases, what components can be considered, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each (although it was explained in Section 2), and what problems and improvements might arise during actual use. Despite this, it was a lecture that I learned a lot from. The instructor said that he would continue to update the lecture and lecture materials, and that he would improve the lecture quality by using a high-quality microphone in the future, so I look forward to it.

    • americasnail
      Instructor

      Hello, thank you for your review. We are currently waiting for a microphone with specifications such as noise cancellation to improve the quality of the lectures. 😭 We will update the quality of the lectures and the quality of the lectures by reflecting the contents you wrote in the review from mid-January. Thank you again. We will continue to work to create better quality lectures in the future.

  • loomin100님의 프로필 이미지
    loomin100

    Reviews 5

    Average Rating 4.0

    4

    47% enrolled

    The lecture content is really good, but... you say "uh" too much, so it's really distracting to listen to the lecture.

    • americasnail
      Instructor

      Thank you for your good feedback. I tried to fix it in the algorithm lecture. I plan to gradually update the lecture to a version without uh in the future. Thank you for taking the lecture, and I will repay you with a better lecture in the future.

  • powudt9327님의 프로필 이미지
    powudt9327

    Reviews 4

    Average Rating 2.8

    3

    60% enrolled

    The subject of the lecture itself is very good, but on the contrary, the lecture as a whole feels very unrefined. The specific details are as follows: - The lecture lacks unity as it goes from the first to the last lecture. You will think, why didn't you do it this way before? - It is a raw lecture with no editing at all. There are quite a few places where the speaker stutters or says "uh" or where the audio is blank for more than 5 seconds. When the audio is blank, you check to see if the network is disconnected, which distracts you from concentrating. - In particular, in the Meta System Design section, there is a constant buzzing sound throughout the lecture, and the instructor's voice sounds a little distorted. At least the Meta section should be re-uploaded. - Also, as a minor point, you can sometimes hear Bluetooth connection sounds during the lecture.

    • americasnail
      Instructor

      Thank you for your feedback. First of all, I apologize for the inconvenience. We will reflect on this in the new update and provide the video again. Thank you again.

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