For your next interview
Think clearly under pressure.
Turn an unfamiliar question into a design discussion. Practice framing requirements, comparing alternatives, and explaining the trade-off behind your answer.
Build your interview approachSystem design + AI architecture
Make architecture decisions you can explain and defend.
Practical lessons for software developers and architects. Prepare for system design interviews, work through real design challenges, and understand how AI changes the systems you build.
With Rohit BhardwajEnterprise AI architect · O’Reilly instructor · AuthorMeet your host →
Two ways to begin
What are you working toward?
The context may change. The habit stays the same: make your assumptions visible and examine the consequences.
For the systems you build
Bring judgment to the design.
Work through data, AI agents, reliability, evaluation, recovery, and cost. Connect an emerging capability to the choices your team actually faces.
Explore practical architectureFresh from the circle
Read a perspective. Work through a challenge.
The AI Architecture Brief
AI Architecture Brief 001: Permission, Evidence, and Recovery
Before an AI agent takes action, decide what it may do, what evidence you will keep, and how you will recover when the outcome is uncertain. A practical review for your next design.
Read the Brief →The architecture challenge
Architecture Challenge 001: The Refund Timed Out—What Happens Next?
An agent submits an approved refund, then loses the response. Design the retry, recovery, and audit trail without turning one customer request into two refunds. Includes a worked answer.
Read the challenge and worked answer →A look inside the free PDF
Design Decision Worksheet
Put a real design decision on the page. Start with the outcome, trace one interaction, and name what must remain true.
The complete worksheet adds constraints, alternatives, the recommendation, failure tests, and the evidence that would reopen your decision.
Free account required for the PDF. You can read this excerpt and every article without signing in.
Outcome and scope
Who needs what outcome? What is included in this decision, and what is outside it?
Critical interaction
Trace one request from the user to the recorded result. Mark who owns the decision.
Read the prompts here. Use the PDF to record your own reasoning.
Free live conversations
System Design with AI — Live with the Author
Bring a scenario from an interview, a project, or a design review. Work through the choices with Rohit and a community of curious practitioners.
Series overview
A regular space for a better question.
Saturdays at 9:00 a.m. Eastern
Free to attend. No book purchase or advance reading required.
Register through Zoom for an available session. Explore the podcast invitation and watch published lessons on our Live page.
From the author of AI Architect Circle
System Design with AI Interview Guide
Designing Scalable, Agentic, and Defensible Systems
Use the book alongside practical guides, design exercises, and live conversations. Develop an approach you can explain in your own words.
Explore the bookContinue the conversation
A weekly brief for decisions that matter.
You do not need to follow every announcement. Focus on the developments that change a decision, the evidence behind them, and the next question worth asking.
Read the published brief