How to Think About System Design (GitHub Engineer's Perspective)

System design interviews often focus on theoretical complexity, but how do Senior Engineers at GitHub actually approach scaling? In this episode, Bassem Dghaidi breaks down how to think about system design when real business impact is on the line.

We discuss why "simple is complicated enough," the dangers of premature scaling, and why vertical scaling often beats complex distributed systems. If you want to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and understand how to design software that actually serves the business, this conversation is for you.

In this episode, we cover:

- The "Order of Magnitude" rule for scaling systems

- Why GitHub often runs millions of requests on simple architecture

- How to communicate technical constraints to non-technical stakeholders

- Why 90% of Bassem's code is now written by AI agents

Connect with Bassem Dghaidi:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bassemdghaidy

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:48 - Theory vs. Practice in System Design

00:02:06 - The Startup That Almost Failed via Kubernetes

00:03:33 - How GitHub Scales (It's Simpler Than You Think)

00:05:20 - The Underrated Power of Vertical Scaling

00:08:23 - Why Big Tech Interviews for Scale You Don't Need Yet

00:10:39 - Software Evolves, It Isn't Just "Built"

00:11:53 - Only Design for the Next Order of Magnitude

00:15:39 - Stop Building Generic Frameworks

00:18:17 - "Hacking" the System Design Interview

00:21:29 - Translating Tech Problems to Business Risks

00:27:37 - Layoffs & Engineering Efficiency

00:29:41 - Proving Your Impact with Numbers

00:31:00 - Professional Engineering vs. Hobby Coding

00:32:19 - "Simple is Complicated Enough"

00:35:03 - The Rise of AI Coding (The Motorcycle Analogy)

00:37:30 - "90% of My Code is Written by AI Agents"

00:41:04 - How to Become a Great Engineer

#SystemDesign #SoftwareEngineering #GitHub