Distributed systems depth, after practice
Jepsen, Kleppmann and replication theory for weeks 20 to 27, read only after P1 and P2.
This page is theory, and it comes last. Read it in weeks 20 to 27, once Ledgerline and Logsmith have made you argue about retries, duplicates and lost messages for real.
If you have not shipped P1 and P2, close this page and go to payments or systems. Reading Jepsen in week 2 feels productive and teaches you nothing you can use.
What to do
Answer the gate question first: can you explain at-least-once delivery and name what breaks it in your own system? If not, you are not ready for this level.
Then read one item per week and attach every claim to a system you built. A claim you cannot attach stays an opinion.
The six sources
| # | Source | Why read it | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aphyr: Jepsen series | Empirical proof that distributed databases lie. Read three or four analyses and note the shape of each failure. | One per week, 20 to 23 |
| 2 | Martin Kleppmann: archive | Essays on epochs, transactions, CRDTs and event sourcing from the DDIA author. | Week 21 onward |
| 3 | Jack Vanlightly: RabbitMQ vs Kafka series and log posts | The bridge from your P2 log to formal log architectures. | 22 |
| 4 | The Morning Paper: distributed systems tag | Adrian Colyer's paper digests. Highest density per minute on this page. | Two abstracts a week |
| 5 | Murat Buffalo: learning about distributed systems | A professor's reading list. Treat it as a syllabus for a second pass after you have an offer. | Optional, 24 and later |
| 6 | The-paper-trail.org | Essays balanced between theory and what an engineer can use. | Optional |
The gate
Do not front-load this level
Jepsen in week 2 anchors nothing. This is week 20 material. Every claim you take from here must hang on a system you built, or it will fall apart the first time an interviewer asks what you did.
Common mistakes
- Reading Jepsen as a list of database verdicts. Read the method, not the scores.
- Using words like linearizable without a system that needed it.
- Letting this page push the build weeks later. Reading never outranks shipping.