Naman
I am a lead developer at a startup, and we do not have a dedicated DevOps team. After starting to read Neo's newsletter, I learned a great deal and implemented many of the suggested changes on our production servers.
This has helped the company reduce costs significantly and has also allowed me to gain valuable knowledge that I wouldn’t have acquired otherwise.
Thank you very much!
Shivansh Rajan
As a Lead Developer, Neo's newsletter has been a solid resource for staying sharp on system design principles and introducing newer architectural patterns to my team. I’ve used several of the breakdowns—like the ones on eventual consistency and distributed caching—as the basis for internal tech talks and design reviews. It’s also helped me guide junior engineers more effectively by giving me concise ways to explain complex concepts. The newsletter has essentially become part of how I stay current and lead with technical clarity.
My favorite part is the real-world system design breakdowns. They’re concise yet practical, often touching on edge cases and trade-offs that rarely get mentioned in high-level overviews. It’s refreshing to read content that doesn’t oversimplify, and I often share these pieces with my team during architecture discussions.
Mark Gillis
As a product manager, systems design is not my core job. However, understanding how systems work and knowing the details does help me improve my ability to think in terms of systems as I propose new products and features.
Neo's newsletter is written in such an approachable way for non-engineers. It is great at explaining the design patterns and trade-offs while removing a lot of the technical jargon, allowing me to easily digest the insights and helping me become a better product manager.
Nguyễn Thế Anh
I’d been learning system design on my own for about a year, but eventually hit a plateau. Subscribing to Neo’s system design newsletter was the unlock I didn’t know I needed.
In just a few weeks, I’ve gained clarity on core design principles, improved my ability to communicate architecture decisions, and felt more confident in technical discussions.
Now, I’m getting recognized by my manager for driving technical improvements and mentoring junior engineers on design trade-offs.
Farooq Mahmud
In 2024 I got laid off. Now with time to spare, I joined The System Design Newsletter and read them in earnest. Such a treasure trove of knowledge! My favorite part about the newsletter is that it's short, to the point, and well written. Every interview I've had asked a system design question and The System Design Newsletter made me feel confident in answering every one of them! The System Design Newsletter played a crucial part in me landing a new job so quickly. Thank you Neo Kim!
Teanna Cole
I struggled with designing scalable, fault‑tolerant systems when I started reading Neo’s System Design Newsletter. After just three months, I’ve developed a clear, repeatable approach to breaking down complex architectures and justifying trade‑offs. As a result, I led a redesign of our core microservices platform—improving uptime by 25%—and earned a promotion to Software Engineer. This newsletter has been one of the most valuable resources for my career. Highly recommend it!
Vivek Modi
I started reading Neo’s system design newsletter when I realized that despite having experience in Android development, my understanding of system design wasn’t translating well during interviews or architecture discussions. I had the fundamentals, but I struggled to break down complex systems and communicate trade-offs clearly under pressure.
Neo’s content helped me bridge that gap. His real-world examples, step-by-step breakdowns, and focus on practical thinking helped me approach system design more confidently and with greater structure. I began applying those principles in mock interviews and real projects — and the difference was immediate. My answers became more focused, my designs more scalable, and I started getting positive feedback from both interviewers and teammates.
If you’re looking for clarity, depth, and real growth in system design — this newsletter delivers.
Sahil Shenoy
I started reading Neo’s system design newsletter around 3 months ago when I was prepping for backend engineering interviews and honestly felt a bit lost with how to approach system design questions. Since then, it’s been a game changer. I’ve gotten way better at structuring my answers, thinking in terms of trade-offs, and even applying some of the concepts at work.
I could tell the difference pretty quickly — my mock interviews became smoother, and even at work, I’ve started contributing more confidently to architecture discussions. If you’re prepping for interviews or just want to up your system design game, this is one resource I’d definitely recommend.
Chandan
Neo's newsletter helped me to be up to date about so many new frameworks and technologies in use to solve high-scale products, and I learnt other approaches for building resilient software systems.
I like how Neo's newsletter takes on a case study weekly basis. Taking on real-life use cases like how monolith help amazon prime video teams and how dynamo database helps some particular category of product and so on. This real life case study gives so much confidence that concepts I am studying have been used actually to build real systems in production not just theoretical knowledge.
Here is my final feedback.
I struggled with understanding database system concepts a lot when I was interviewing with a database company, and in general at work for day to day database related decisions. When I started reading Neo’s system design newsletter. I’ve got great insight into various system concepts and how to apply them in general at work. I have got great understanding of system and database system with theoretical and practical examples.
As a result, I have been promoted at work this year.
This newsletter has been one of the most valuable resources for my career. Highly recommend it!
Rudolf Gutlich
I've started using Neo's newsletter as a mental warm-up—something I read with coffee in hand before getting into code or architecture planning. The posts are bite-sized refreshers on concepts that I already know but may not revisit frequently, such as DNS resolution paths or microservice scaling strategies. They also provide me with language to clearly explain technical topics to my team's non-engineers and junior developers. The ability to communicate clearly is extremely important in senior positions.
More than anything, the visual-first, step-by-step breakdowns allow me to quickly anchor complex ideas, which is useful in fast-paced meetings or when mentoring others.
My favorite part is definitely the two-minute case study format. The newsletter seems to respect my time. The illustrations and structured flow (e.g., resolver → root → TLD → authoritative server) make even common topics clear and reviewable. I also like how the posts don't pretend to be exhaustive—they provide just enough information with links if you want to dig deeper.
In an age of overly detailed Medium articles and verbose whitepapers, this newsletter is like a clean architectural diagram: elegant, useful, and straight to the point.
Victor
System design interviews used to be a major hurdle for me. While I understood the theory, applying those concepts to real world scenarios felt overwhelming. That changed when I discovered Neo’s system design newsletter. Within a few months, I went from struggling with abstract ideas to confidently designing solutions for complex architectural challenges at work.
The impact was undeniable: I recently earned a promotion to Senior Software Engineer. During my review, my manager noted how my ability to design scalable, fault-tolerant systems had become a ‘cornerstone of our team’s success.’
Neo’s newsletter isn’t just informative. it’s a transformative resource for anyone serious about advancing their technical expertise. If you’re aiming to bridge the gap between theory and practice, I couldn’t recommend it more.
Roman Letodiani
🔥 Before I discovered Neo’s System Design One newsletter, I was piecing together scattered content from blogs and videos - enough to get by, but never deep enough to feel confident in real-world scenarios.
📬 Since subscribing last year, everything has changed.
Neo doesn’t just teach system design - he deconstructs it. The newsletter dives into real engineering problems, explains the trade-offs, and gives you frameworks that actually work. I started applying concepts immediately and saw the difference, from better architecture decisions to clearer communication with teammates.
💡 This isn’t just content. It’s the kind of guidance I wish I had years ago.
Neo's newsletter is the edge you've been looking for if you’re serious about becoming a sharper engineer, beyond just acing interviews.
Highly recommend.
Abhishek Varshney
Neo’s newsletter helped me finally make sense of system design. Before, it always felt vague and overwhelming — but the way he breaks things down made it click. I’ve started approaching system design with more structure and confidence.
I really appreciate how clear and practical each edition is. Neo doesn’t just throw buzzwords around — he explains concepts with real-world examples that actually stick. It’s like getting mentorship in my inbox every week.
Jitendra
Neo's simplified system design case studies transformed my approach to architecture problems at work. I've gone from feeling overwhelmed to confidently contributing during system design discussions.
Before subscribing, I struggled with the complexity of large-scale systems. The newsletter's breakdown of real examples like "How Amazon Scaled E-commerce Shopping Cart Data Infrastructure" gave me practical insights I now apply daily.
My favourite part is the perfect balance of depth and accessibility. Neo delivers highly technical content in digestible formats that don't sacrifice substance - "100% signal and 0% noise".
Vishal Tulsani
After joining Neo's newsletter, the main change for me was gaining a deeper understanding of the concepts that drive both scalable systems and efficient architectures. It helped bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical implementation. Before the newsletter, I had a solid grasp of the basics, but now I feel more confident in tackling complex design problems, from high-level system overviews to granular, low-level implementation details.
My favorite part of the newsletter is the real-world case studies and detailed breakdowns of design patterns. They give me insights into how industry experts approach system design challenges and the rationale behind certain design decisions. It’s incredibly valuable to see the thought process behind architecture choices and how they address scalability, fault tolerance, and performance issues. Plus, the newsletter includes actionable advice that I can apply directly to my work, which makes it even more worthwhile.
Kartik Wadehra
I struggled with system design for job interviews when I started reading Neo’s system design newsletter. In about 3 months, I’ve been able to keep up as well as contribute to architectural discussions at my workplace. As a result, I'm now being considered for an architect role at my workplace.
This newsletter changed my career. Highly recommend!
From the start, Neo's system design newsletter stood out with its clear explanations and real-world case studies. I’ve been reading it 1 year, and it’s helped me gain clarity on how to architect scalable systems.
The content goes beyond theory — it feels like someone truly cares about helping you level up
as an engineer.
- Arsy Opraza, Software Engineer.
Jerome
System design is an intimidating subject for me, but the real-world examples used to break down the key concepts in Neo's newsletter have been invaluable. I’m using one of the case studies to help me structure a project that I’d like to turn into a business soon.
Saravana Kannan
I was battling frustrating latency issues that were impacting our user experience. Neo Kim's '12 Golden Rules' provided a clear and actionable framework to tackle these problems. Since implementing his recommendations, we've seen a noticeable boost in speed, and our users are much happier. Thank you, Neo, for sharing these invaluable rules!
Koray Ozgur
I started reading Neo’s system design newsletter about 3–4 months ago, when I was struggling with system design questions during new grad software engineer interviews. With AI getting better at coding, I realized system design would become an even more crucial differentiator.
Since then, I’ve connected the dots between the scattered concepts I learned from school and work, and started to see the big picture of how scalable systems are built.
I noticed the impact almost immediately — from clearer thinking during interviews to a stronger grasp of architectural trade-offs in real-world scenarios.
Moral of the story: If you’re serious about mastering system design, this is a no-brainer.
Urvashi
I started diving into system design last year and made good progress understanding the tech that powers complex systems. But after a while, I hit a wall. Subscribing to Neo’s system design newsletter turned out to be exactly what I needed. In just a few months, I’ve leveled up—becoming more comfortable with tackling tricky architecture challenges and really refining my approach to building scalable systems.
Now, I’m getting more visibility at work, collaborating with senior engineers, and even mentoring teammates on system design concepts.
Lukas
Joining Neo's newsletter has demonstrably increased my engagement with system design principles and fostered a greater sense of confidence in my ability to design new services effectively. Furthermore, I've observed a personal shift in my professional aspirations, moving towards a more architecturally focused role.
The most valuable element of your newsletter, in my opinion, is the consistent reliability of the information presented. I consider your insights to be highly dependable and utilize them as a benchmark without the need for additional verification.
Jyoti
I recently subscribed to Neo's newsletter.
I can definitely say that it has helped me immensely. Whether it is during office meetings where other team members are discussing some new design or feature and they use some technical jargons like DB sharding, reliability, availability, etc or preparing for interviews, I am able to understand and put everything into perspective.
Also I have felt that consistently giving an hour or half from the day to learning is more fruitful than studying for straight 6-7 hours in a single day.
Ramadhan
I started reading Neo’s system design newsletter about two months ago with little to no understanding of how real-world distributed systems work. Since then, I’ve gained a better understanding of distributed systems (or any software system at all) and gained confidence when discussing them with my peers.
Now, since I have confidence in my knowledge of it, I aim to use it for my interview preparation. This is going to be a long journey, but as long as I have this system design newsletter, I think I can master it in the near future.
Boil Marinov
Since I started a mentor program that focuses partly on system design, I came already somewhat prepared simply because of Neo's newsletter.
It definitely helped me understand the diagrams, the conceptions. At the same time, the newsletter is not somewhat like a task. When the topic fits you, it's an easy read. If it is not, just skip it for a later time. Cannot give a specific issue as a reference to a favourite part, because the impact of the whole newsletter gave value. It gave the feeling of system design issues and common ways to tackle them. This is the most important (at least to me) impact of the newsletter.
Naman
After subscribing to Neo's newsletter, I found myself more consistently updated with the industry trends, new tools, and best practices. It has helped me stay sharp, inspired new project ideas, and given me a clearer picture of where the tech landscape is heading. Instead of digging through multiple sources, I get high-quality insights straight to my inbox.
My favourite part is the case studies, there's always something I can apply immediately. I also appreciate how it balances depth and readability without being overwhelming.
Sakil Ahmed
As someone preparing to re-enter the software industry and aiming for backend/full stack roles, Neo Kim’s newsletter has been a game-changer. It helped me bridge the gap between textbook knowledge and real-world system design. The practical case studies sharpened my thinking and boosted my confidence for interviews and project design.
The clarity of explanations and the real-world relevance stand out the most. I especially appreciate how each complex system is broken down visually and conceptually, making it easier to grasp topics like microservices, scalability, and fault tolerance. It's exactly the kind of content I needed to feel job-ready again.
Neo’s system design newsletter stands out with clear, practical insights and real-world examples.
In just a few weeks, it’s helped me tackle design problems and think critically about scalability.
Feels like real mentorship — highly recommend!
Zainab JINARI, Software Engineer 👩💻
TheLazyDev
After joining Neo's newsletter, my understanding of system design and scalable architecture improved drastically. It shifted my thinking from writing code to designing real-world systems. The practical insights and deep dives into industry-level problems helped me connect the dots between theory and application. It’s like having a senior engineer guide you every week.
What I love most is how effortlessly the newsletter explains complex topics — from design patterns to handling massive data loads. It’s not just informative but thought-provoking. Each edition feels like a conversation with someone who’s been there, done that. It keeps me curious, engaged, and constantly learning new angles of tech I didn’t know I needed.
Kumar Mritunjay
I have been reading Neo's newsletter for a long time now and I got to learn so many cool stuff.
What change is, now I flex in my office about cool new system design concepts that I consume from this newsletter.