awesome-scalability
A curated reading list of articles and talks on designing large systems that scale, stay reliable, and perform
- Stars
- 75.3k
- Forks
- 7.2k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- —
- Last update
- 10 months ago
- Type
- Curated list
What it is
This is a categorized list of links to articles, papers, talks and case studies about building large-scale software systems. It groups material into sections such as principles, scalability, availability, performance, architecture, interview preparation and organization. People use it as a reading guide for learning how big services handle heavy load, failures and data growth.
- Read articles on consistent hashing, sharding or CAP theorem trade-offs
- Browse architecture case studies before designing a system on a whiteboard
- Find talks from engineers at large companies about operating reliable systems
- Use the list as a checklist of topics to study
Great for
- Engineers preparing for system design interviews
- Developers who want to learn how large services are built
- Teams looking for background reading on scalability trade-offs
- Students studying distributed systems concepts
Not ideal for
- People who want runnable code or a software tool, since this is a list of links with no installable product
- Readers wanting original explanations, because the content is linked from other authors and the README itself offers little commentary
How to get it
- 1
Read it online
Clone the repository locally (optional)
git clone https://github.com/binhnguyennus/awesome-scalability - 2
Run it
- Open the repository page on GitHub
- Pick a section that matches your problem, such as performance or availability
- Follow the links and read one article at a time
- Check the interview and architecture sections when preparing for interviews
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Start from the 'If your system goes slow' and 'If your system goes down' guidance in the README to choose sections
- Read the Principle section first for foundational concepts such as CAP theorem and consistent hashing
- Use the Architecture and Interview sections together when practicing whiteboard design
- Watch the linked talks for real-world examples from named engineering teams
Downloads
Strengths
- Large, organized collection with many well-known references
- Sections map to common questions such as slow systems, outages and interviews
- Actively maintained with contribution guidelines
Trade-offs
- Consists of external links, so some may go stale or move; the README invites pull requests to fix them
- Offers no install, code or hands-on exercises
- Quality of each linked resource varies and is not explained in the README
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| awesome-scalability (this) | 75.3k | Curated list | beginner | 10 months ago | Engineers preparing for system design interviews |
| test-your-sysadmin-skills | 11.9k | Curated list | beginner | 2.0 years ago | People preparing for a Linux or sysadmin job interview |
| professional-programming | 51.7k | Curated list | beginner | 10 days ago | Software engineers who want to build professional habits and broader engineering judgment |
| modular-monolith-with-ddd | 14.1k | Learning resource | advanced | 2.4 years ago | Developers learning Domain-Driven Design tactical patterns in C# |
| tech-interview-handbook | 143k | Learning resource | beginner | 3 months ago | Engineers preparing for technical interviews who have limited study time |
| interviews | 65.5k | Learning resource | beginner | 1.5 years ago | Students preparing for their first software engineering interviews |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.