Akshay Gidwani

System design is basically structured paranoia.

@kritikatwtss Couldn’t agree more 🤣

@jatinkrmalik @scottjohnson Election Commission of India 😂

@g_akki98 @scottjohnson what's that?`

I think this dude is correct.

@jatinkrmalik @scottjohnson Inspired by ECI ?😂

@scottjohnson why not just quote the original post? :)

Whenever the interviewer asks, "Do you have any questions for me?", never skip this question. Here are 5 questions (in order of importance) that I have actually asked the interviewer to understand the company and role better... 1. What keeps you awake at night? [my default] 2. What new tech is the team experimenting with? 3. One company project that you are excited about? 4. An interesting work the team shipped recently? 5. Some company traditions that you enjoy? Each of the above questions covers one interesting aspect of the role and team. Pick one that is most important to you. I ask one of these questions because I am interested in innovation, culture, growth, dealing with failures, and decision DNA. Remember, it is important to ask questions in the interview for two reasons: first, it demonstrates your genuine interest in the role, position, and company; second, it allows you to get some super important insights about the role and company.

@khushmanpreet @arpit_bhayani @Harshrwt27 Oh, my bad🥲 but yeah, they mostly do it over the board, with 2-3 folks around them. Noting moves would make less sense here 😅

@g_akki98 @arpit_bhayani @Harshrwt27 i think he meant the ideas for their move/s, i.e., thinking their moves by writing ( usually they do it in their mind or discuss with someone)

Thinking is not a talent you have; it is a habit you build.

@arpit_bhayani @Harshrwt27 They’re definitely good at memorising stuff. But writing always helps. It just makes life easier.

@arpit_bhayani @Harshrwt27 I disagree. Chess players write down every move (atleast in classical chess), though in top-level tournaments modern boards often record moves for them, skipping manual notation. They are accustomed to it from a very young age. Technology, in chess, has been revolutionary tho.

I wonder if education in India is really helping students when we have to write long essays for simple, straightforward topics, while the world demands crisp and concise communication. 🥴 Thoughts?

@arpit_bhayani So much so that, after a clean shave, your hands feel like something is missing 😂

Men cannot think without touching their beards.

Padh lo bhai bahut mehnat kiya ladka ne 4 din tak

From Blind: Read these books if you want to make >600K/yr Having read 8/9 books on this list over last 10 years, here's my distilled recommendation on what you should read first without getting distracted to become an actual value multiplier engineer 👇

@vaibkaus I guess that’s pretty easy for you. They should’ve put a t&c only for genz 🤣🤣

Right now.

@jatinkrmalik @sunnykgupta @TeamShiksha Would be great having sessions with you Jatin😁👍

Hello folks! I was discussing with @sunnykgupta about hosting a reading cohort of this book on @TeamShiksha's discord where we will read chapters together with some side chat on breadth/depth around evolution of software & hardware. I am planning to do a reading anyways, thought would be a fun exercise with a group. (It's free, no courses, no charges, just bring some interesting questions and curiosity). :) Doing a quick survey here to see if that's something you folks would like to join. 👍or 👎?

@Bhuvneshdot Way to go @Bhuvneshdot!

Reached my first 1K, Cheers 🍻

@vaibkaus @Bhuvneshdot Interesting!

@g_akki98 @Bhuvneshdot I disagree. Apple has that effect everywhere actually. In US the shipping on preorders is faster so the lines are shorter.

We are so dumb as a country!

The System Design August Cohort ended today, and it was the best one yet - by a massive, massive margin :) This cohort was filled with some of the most thought-provoking questions and inputs from participants. Because of this, I added a lot of new material and went into greater detail on the systems I covered. In this cohort, I introduced a new flavor of Flash Sale, tackling the challenge of handling a high volume of items efficiently. We also explored more details around running and managing Elasticsearch in production. Apart from that, we had several detailed and practical discussions on securing data exposed via a CDN. We also touched on some nuances of job schedulers, thanks to contributions from folks at Flipkart and Atlassian. This is why I love the cohort setup: it's not a one-way monologue, but a space filled with collaboration, discussion, and brainstorming. I believe teaching isn't about stating facts - it's about helping people develop the right mindset through mental models and frameworks, making the entire process more intuitive rather than prescriptive. I was left speechless when participants shared how they became more curious and how I was able to reignite their engineering curiosity. They started seeing patterns in systems and, more importantly, began spotting widespread misconceptions :) The next cohort starts next week, on 11th October, and there are still ~30 seats left if you're interested. curriculum and other details - arpitbhayani.me/course I forgot to take a snap in this cohort; here's a screenshot from my recording. I really need to get better at this :)

@Bhuvneshdot It's an important reminder: stepping out of your comfort zone often creates stress but significantly boosts confidence when we embrace it. 😇

Remind yourself: I feel fear because it's new, not because I can't do it.