AI-Assisted System Design & Architecture
From Writing Code to Designing Systems — With AI as Your Sparring Partner
Design systems that pass an audit and survive a token budget.
Most engineers can build a feature. Far fewer can stand at a whiteboard and design a system that scales, survives failure, and fits a budget — then defend every decision under challenge. That skill is what separates senior engineers from the rest.
AI is a tempting shortcut here, and a dangerous one. Ask a model to 'design a system for X' and it returns a confident, plausible architecture — often with hidden single points of failure, hand-waved capacity numbers, and the wrong database for the job. An engineer who can't evaluate that design ships it.
This course teaches you to design systems *with* AI, using it as a tireless sparring partner whose output you interrogate rather than accept. You'll learn the building blocks of system design, produce real design artifacts (design docs, ADRs, C4 diagrams), and practice the classic interview problems — out-thinking the AI instead of leaning on it.
System design interviews are gatekeepers for senior roles — and they exist for good reason. The ability to design a system that scales, survives failure, and fits a budget is what separates senior engineers from the rest.
AI makes this both easier and more dangerous. Ask a model to design a system and it returns a confident, plausible architecture — often with hidden single points of failure, hand-waved capacity numbers, and the wrong database for the job. An engineer who can't evaluate that design doesn't just fail an interview — they ship a system that fails in production.
This course teaches you to design systems with AI as a sparring partner whose output you interrogate rather than accept. You'll produce real design artifacts and practice the classic interview problems — out-thinking the AI instead of leaning on it.
Before
"I start coding immediately. AI suggests an architecture, I build it. If it works in dev, it's probably fine."
After
"I design and write the spec before a line is written. I interrogate AI's suggestions for SPOFs, wrong trade-offs, and missing NFRs — and I can defend every decision."
- 1Designs and writes the spec before a line of code exists — not "AI says use this architecture"
- 2Interrogates AI's proposed design for single points of failure, wrong trade-offs, and missing NFRs instead of accepting it
- 3Back-of-envelope capacity estimation, C4 diagrams, ADRs, and design docs a team can actually act on
- 4A repeatable system-design framework, practiced against the classic interview problems — and defended in a live design review
13 sessions · 26h across 4pillars · every session ends with a working, reviewable artifact. Expand any pillar for the session lineup.
Architect's FoundationMindset, requirements, estimation · Week 1–2▼
- Session 1 — The Architect's Mindset & the Design Artifact
- Session 2 — Requirements to Design: Functional, Non-Functional & Constraints
- Session 3 — Capacity Estimation & Back-of-the-Envelope Math
Building BlocksThe components every system reuses · Week 3–5▼
- Session 4 — Load Balancing, Caching & CDNs
- Session 5 — Data Storage & the Database Decision
- Session 6 — Data Modeling & Schema Design with AI
- Session 7 — API & Contract Design
Designing for ProductionScale, reliability, security, cost · Week 6–9▼
- Session 8 — Designing for Scale & Performance
- Session 9 — Designing for Reliability & Availability
- Session 10 — Security & Privacy by Design
- Session 11 — Cost-Aware Design & Trade-off Analysis
Interview & CapstoneApplying the framework under pressure · Week 10–13▼
- Session 12 — The System Design Interview, with AI as Sparring Partner
- Session 13 — Capstone: Design Review & Defense
Want the full session-by-session syllabus with objectives and deliverables? Request it here— we'll send it over.
| Delivery | Cohort-based, live, instructor-led |
| Class length | 2 hours per class |
| Cadence | 2 classes/week (4 hours/week) |
| Total length | 13 sessions · 26h over 6.5 weeks |
| Location | Dhaka + Global (remote seats available) |
| Prerequisites | Comfort building a backend service. AI-Assisted Development (Course 1) recommended but not required. |
৳4,500
$69 global
Coming soonThis course launches soon. Join the waitlist for early access and launch-day pricing.
Is this just for interview prep?▼
No. The interview framework is one module. The course teaches real system design — the skill of producing and defending architecture that ships.
Do I need Course 1 first?▼
Recommended but not required. You need comfort building a backend service. The AI-assistance workflow from Course 1 carries over.
How is this different from AI Systems Design (Course 7)?▼
This course teaches general software system design with AI assistance. Course 7 architects production AI/LLM platforms specifically — token economics, vector stores at scale, AI-specific SLOs.
Part of a longer track?
This course is part of the TIER A · ENGINEERING. Explore the full catalog to find related courses that build on each other.
View all courses →