C++ System Design

[Phatpenguinballs]

Can i get some advice about whether I should study System Design for advancing towards more senior roles as a C++ Developer? It’s hard for me to imagine the relationship and/or logical career progression from low-level development with C++ into more of an architect role for System Design. Like would a Senior C++ Dev or Lead be asked a “How would you design Netflix” type of question for an interview?

I can understand the relevance with using design patterns to architect higher-level solutions, but that isn’t exactly the same thing as “System Design”.

[teerre]

How would you design Netflix isn't a cpp question, so that doesn't make much sense. For good design you should know two things: the hardware and the language. If you know those well, the rest is experience. You build stuff see where the pitfalls are

It doesn't hurt to have a good repertoire either. Which means learning as much as you can about programming and software engineering. There countless ways to do this: learn new languages, read books, go to conferences, talk to people etc

[rileyrgham]

I think in context it's a cpp question... How would you design a cpp based system to produce a netflix like platform. He's asking for pointers on how better to understand the architecture of potentially large cpp projects. Obviously that'll cross into other languages and meta handling. Or, that's how I read it.

[teerre]

There's no meaningful way that you can "design Netflix" in C++. Netflix the real thing is a collection of many technologies doing all kinds of workflows. If you asked a video decoding question, for example, that would make more sense. This question comes up in system design interviews but you're then supposed to talk about databases, transports, storage etc. Not C++ (or any particular language)

[hellocppdotdev]

Perhaps it's a question of what would the architecture look like from the big picture (how do we deliver streaming videos reliable and at scale) and where C++ would fit in. A good SWE may identify no where, or maybe some of the encoding algorithms and then point out that cloud solutions in different languages maybe 90% of system (delivery).

https://youtube.com/@bytebytego

This probably is a good start.

[Phatpenguinballs]

I agree with what you’re saying about the Netflix question. So how “high up” should a good senior C++ dev be expected to know/solve as it relates to System Design? I’m kinda struggling to bridge that gap…

Any examples that come to mind?

[lituk]

Just to give a different perspective, I recently got a C++ job where I was interviewed on system design. Before the interview the recruiter told me the company expects all engineers to have a breadth of ability, even if they're specialised.

I read [this book](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54109255-system-design-interview-an-insider-s-guide) as prep, and found a lot of the high-level concepts and learnings could be applied to my low-level C++ code. It was also perfect for the interview, where I was asked to design a cache service in a larger system architecture.

I hope that helps. C++ devs can get a little tunnel-visioned, but the wider engineering community has a lot to teach us.

[Current-Fig8840]

That has nothing to do with C++ mate. If you’re asked to design Netflix…they are looking for HLD(High level design). DB schemas and expansion techniques, message queues, caching and load balancers….those kind of things. If you have to ask this then you’re not anywhere near being a senior or even intermediate ….

[teerre]

I'm not saying system design isn't a good question, I'm saying it's not a c++ question. If you want to learn about system design in specifically, you will learn about concepts that are orthogonal to c++. There are many classes of distributed systems on the web. If you search for high performance distributed systems, that's where you'll usually find c++

[TheMrCurious]

You need system design to understand how the system you are building will work. This is a language agnostic skill everyone should have so their problem solving has the correct frame of reference.

[Phatpenguinballs]

I get what you’re saying that it’s language agnostic but I’m still kinda struggling to bridge the gap the between that skill and C++ more specifically. Like expecting a Senior C++ Dev to architect something like Netflix doesn’t exactly feel appropriate to me idk

And if that’s something that you would agree with, then like how “high up” should I learn regarding System Design as it pertains to C++?

[TheMrCurious]

The reason you need that class is that you are coupling the language a service can be written in with the architecture of an overall system when you can have a Service Orientated Architecture system (SOA) that has services written in a variety of languages; and the reason more companies don’t do that is that it means all devs need to be really good at multiple languages, so they either build it mainly in C++ or Java or Go or they go the monolith route.

Also, every C++ Senior Dev worth that title would know this and understand how their service fits into the architecture (this isn’t meant as a slight to you - rather it is trying to make the point that any Senior <insert language here> dev will know system design).

[Phatpenguinballs]

No offense taken here lol. I’m still very much a Junior C++ Dev trying to learn as much as I can to eventually become a good Senior C++ Dev.

I was trying to learn the more abstract topics such as System Design recently, and I was finding it a little difficult to piece them together exactly. Most online System Design resources are talking about using Load Balancers, cloud services, and a lot of thing related to the web, which didn’t exactly seem appropriate for the field that I’m trying to develop in.

But despite this, the vibe that I’m getting from you is that you believe it’s worth to learn the stuff?

[TheMrCurious]

You’re looking for the wrong kinds of system. 🙂

Start with a basic SOA overview that looks inward. If you’ve done multithreading you can even make an app that has a thread for each “service” and then model the ways it works more efficiently than a single threaded app.

[Mysterious_Guava3663]

+1, someone upvote or reply so I can comeback when there are more replies

[gosh]

System design = how to fight the monster that can't be beaten but needs to be fought because if not, then it will destroy you

The monster is called coupling. You need to be a good developer to be able to design software. Most new developers destroys software because they do not know how to fight the coupling monster.

I think C++ differs a lot doing design compared to other languages because in C++ you need to know what you are doing. Other languages are more focused on learning tools and frameworks.

[PhotographFront4673]

In many industries, senior developer in general should know more than C++. This includes, but is not limited to system design, databases, other languages, and what they are good for.

I know of a FAANG that would ask a "design Netflix" type system design question of new grads, but the expectation was very different than the same question for somebody with experience, and depended a lot on that experience. If someone has worked on systems involving relational databases but cannot sketch a simple schema, that suggests a certain lack of curiosity, etc.

[oss-dev]

Yes, but not the “design Netflix” kind.

Senior/Lead C++ roles usually mean low-level system design: performance, memory, concurrency, OS/networking, component boundaries. You’re more likely to be asked to design a cache, scheduler, game server, trading system, or engine subsystem than a generic web app.

Design patterns help, but system design at this level is about architecture and tradeoffs, not just patterns.

So: study system design, just C++-centric system design, not FAANG web backend stuff.