Interview Prep Roadmap — AI Engineering, System Design

1. 01

   Foundations

   3 topics

   • How LLMs Workbeginner
   • The LLM Landscapebeginner
   • Prompt Engineeringbeginner
2. 02

   Working with LLM APIs

   4 topics

   • LLM API Fundamentalsbeginner
   • Structured Outputintermediate
   • Tool Use / Function Callingintermediate
   • Streaming & Context Managementintermediate
3. 03

   Embeddings & Retrieval

   4 topics

   • Embeddingsintermediate
   • Vector Databasesintermediate
   • Chunking Strategiesintermediate
   • Search Relevanceadvanced
4. 04

   RAG

   3 topics

   • RAG Pipelineintermediate
   • Advanced RAGadvanced
   • Evaluating RAGadvanced
5. 05

   AI Agents

   4 topics

   • Agent Fundamentalsintermediate
   • Agent Patternsadvanced
   • Model Context Protocol (MCP)intermediate
   • Agent Memory & Stateadvanced
6. 06

   AI in Production

   4 topics

   • Cost & Latency Optimizationadvanced
   • Safety & Guardrailsadvanced
   • AI Observabilityintermediate
   • Evalsadvanced
7. 07

   Distributed Systems Concepts

   5 topics

   • Distributed Fundamentalsadvanced
   • Consensus & Coordinationadvanced
   • Idempotency & Reliable Deliveryadvanced
   • Distributed Transactionsadvanced
   • Rate Limiting & Load Sheddingadvanced
8. 08

   Architecture Patterns

   3 topics

   • Monolith vs Microservicesadvanced
   • Serverless & Edge Architecturesintermediate
   • Observability & Security in Designadvanced
9. 09

   Case Studies

   17 topics

   • Design a URL Shortenerintermediate
   • Design a Rate Limiterintermediate
   • Design a Chat Systemadvanced
   • Design a News Feedadvanced
   • Design File Storage (Dropbox)advanced
   • Design a Notification Systemadvanced
   • Design Video Streaming (YouTube)advanced
10. 10

    Data Systems Internals

    6 topics

    • Storage Engine Internalsadvanced
    • Stream Processingadvanced
    • Batch & Lakehouseintermediate
    • Change Data Captureadvanced
    • Unique ID Generationintermediate
    • Probabilistic Data Structuresadvanced
11. 11

    Collaboration & Search Systems

    3 topics

    • OT vs CRDTadvanced
    • Search System Designadvanced
    • Recommendation Systems Overviewadvanced

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