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Free module

Distributed systems

Learn distributed systems hands on: replication, consistency, partitioning, quorums and safe retries, with a real store and a log.

6 lessons335 min lessonSoftware engineering

The lessons

Each lesson is free to read in full. Create a free account to run its commands in a live lab and to sit its quizzes and tasks.

  1. 1 · Container lab

    Why systems run on many machines

    I can say why systems run on many machines and what goes wrong.

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  2. 2 · Container lab

    How data replication works

    I can explain how copies of data are kept and what a failure does.

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  3. 3 · Container lab

    Strong and eventual consistency

    I can say what a reader sees after a write, and the trade-off.

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  4. 4 · Container lab

    Sharding and partitioning data

    I can split data across machines by key.

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  5. 5 · Container lab

    Quorum and leader election

    I can explain how machines agree on a leader or a value.

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  6. 6 · Container lab

    Retries and idempotent consumers

    I can design a consumer that survives retries.

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Worked in a real lab

Every lesson of this module is worked in a lab started for you alone. The labs it uses:

Teaching a class? Set this module for your students with a teacher guide, marked assignments and a lab for every student.