Beginners in system design are always advised to read System Design Interview – An Insider’s Guide. That’s why it remains the #1 bestseller in “Interview” books on Amazon. But in 2025, it’s no longer worth reading. Five years ago it was one of the best resources on system design, but today it’s become oversimplified and detached from reality.
Now it’s much more useful to design systems that actually interest you using ChatGPT/Deepseek. With LLMs, you can:
- Ask naive questions without embarrassment
- Request visualizations of confusing concepts
- Dig deeper into details In other words—learn more effectively. If you can’t think of interesting systems to design, try picking from the Architecture Katas list.
How do we get great designers? Great designers design, of course.
