Masterclass playlist
The 16-video masterclass, mostly SDE-2 depth, with the three sessions worth watching before the offer.
This is Arpit Bhayani's masterclass playlist: 16 videos, and most of them are SDE-2 depth. It is not a beginner course. The first two sessions are the exception and belong in weeks 20 to 22 of the 34-week plan.
The videos are downloaded, so this page has no links. Open them from your local folder. Titles keep the [WH] and [Storm] tags from the filenames.
Most of this waits until week 28
Three videos are safe earlier: the two foundational sessions and Storage Engines I. Everything else waits for week 28 or later. Reading this playlist in month one will eat weeks you need for DSA and the projects.
How to use this playlist
Watch the two foundational sessions in weeks 20 and 22. They are the only SDE-1 nice rows here.
Watch Storage Engines I only if Logsmith's append path is already working and you want the why behind it.
Park the rest until week 28. Then take one video per week and write its diagram down.
Take the two algorithmic sessions in weeks 33 and 34, and the last one after the offer.
Rows are ordered by the week you watch them, not by playlist number, so the # column can jump.
What the tags mean
[WH] means a whiteboard-heavy session: expect a full design drawn end to end. [Storm] marks the distributed systems session that pairs with Storm-System-Design-Notes (Arpit Bhayani).pdf in the beginner folder. That PDF is a local file, not a link.
The modules
Foundations, watch in weeks 20 to 22
The only two rows here that earn their time before an offer. Both are SDE-1 nice, not must.
| # | Video | When | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Foundational Topics in System Design - I | Week 20 | SDE-1 nice |
| 2 | Foundational Topics in System Design - II - [WH] | Week 22 | SDE-1 nice |
After this module you can state what a system design interview is testing and structure an answer without prompting.
Databases and storage internals (videos 3, 4 and 9)
Storage Engines I is the one early exception, from week 14 onward. The two database sessions are SDE-2 depth and wait for week 28.
| # | Video | When | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Storage Engines - I - [WH] | Week 15 | SDE-2 later |
| 3 | Relational Databases - [WH] | Week 28 | SDE-2 later |
| 4 | Non-relational Databases - [WH] | Week 29 | SDE-2 later |
After this module you can explain what a B-tree and an LSM tree each optimise, and why a write-heavy store picks one over the other.
Distributed systems and a social network (videos 5 to 8)
Four sessions that build one system twice. Start in week 29, when the beginner case studies are done.
| # | Video | When | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Distributed Systems [Storm] | Week 29 | SDE-2 later |
| 6 | Distributed ID Generators - [WH] | Week 30 | SDE-2 later |
| 7 | Building Social Network - I - [WH] | Week 30 | SDE-2 later |
| 8 | Building Social Network - II - [WH] | Week 31 | SDE-2 later |
After this module you can draw a system that generates unique IDs across machines, and a feed that survives a fan-out spike.
Storage engines and throughput (videos 10 to 12)
Three sessions on the write path at scale. These are the ones that help most on the job, and least in a fresher interview.
| # | Video | When | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Storage Engines - II - [WH] | Week 31 | SDE-2 later |
| 11 | High Throughput Systems - I - [WH] | Week 32 | SDE-2 later |
| 12 | High Throughput Systems - II - [WH] | Week 32 | SDE-2 later |
After this module you can explain where a high-throughput system spends its latency budget, and which layer you would fix first.
Retrieval and algorithmic design (videos 13 to 16)
The last four sessions, and the two algorithmic ones are the hardest. Do them last, and take the final one after the offer.
| # | Video | When | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Information Retrieval Systems - [WH] | Week 33 | SDE-2 later |
| 14 | Adhoc System Design - [WH] | Week 33 | SDE-2 later |
| 15 | Algorithmic System Design - I - [WH] | Week 34 | SDE-2 later |
| 16 | Algorithmic System Design - II - [WH] | After the offer | SDE-2 later |
After this module you can design a search system with an index and a ranking step, and reason about a design problem that has no standard shape.
What to watch before week 27
Only three rows, in this order: Foundational Topics I, Foundational Topics II, then Storage Engines I. That is the whole early budget. Add nothing else from this playlist until the beginner playlist and the four must-do designs are finished.
If a company sends you an SDE-2-flavoured loop, the honest move is still the beginner case studies plus your own projects. Depth without a shipped system does not survive follow-up questions.
Common mistakes
- Watch the foundations in weeks 20 and 22, as scheduled.
- Take one whiteboard session per week from week 28.
- Keep the Storm PDF open while you watch the Storm video.
- Treat the algorithmic sessions as practice, not as a checklist.