How modern software really works.

In-depth writing on system design, AI engineering, DevOps and cloud, plus the AI updates worth your time, explained without the hype. By engineers, for engineers.

Read the blog Browse topics

topics covered: 5
to read, no sign-up: Free

notebook/system-design

01System DesignScaling a read-heavy feed
02AI EngineeringTracing a RAG answer
03AI UpdatesWhat changed this week
04DevOpsFrom plan to rollout
05CloudA three-tier network

System Design01 / 05

Scaling a read-heavy feed

read pathcache misscache-aside

AI Engineering02 / 05

Tracing a RAG answer

userWhy does the support bot cite an outdated policy?
toolretrieve(query, k=4)4 chunks
modelThe top chunk predates the update. Re-index on publish, then re-rank.
evalgrounded · 2 sourcespass

context2.4k / 8k tokens

AI Updates03 / 05

What changed this week

ModelsA new model is out. Read the eval, not the launch post.
ResearchLong context or retrieval: when each one wins.
ToolingUpgrading an SDK without breaking your prompts.

What changed, why it matters, what to do next.

DevOps04 / 05

From plan to rollout

$ terraform plan

+ aws_s3_bucket.assets

~ aws_iam_role.deploy

Plan: 1 to add, 1 to change, 0 to destroy.

$ kubectl rollout status deploy/api

deployment "api" successfully rolled out

Cloud05 / 05

A three-tier network

edgeCDNWAF

vpc · 3 availability zones

publicload balancer

privateserviceservicequeue

datapostgresobject store

Margin note

Cache the read path. Let writes invalidate.

Evaluate retrieval before you tune the prompt.

Every release, three questions: what changed, what it costs, what breaks.

Read the plan before you apply it.

Private by default. Expose only the load balancer.

From the EduGeek notebook: one worked entry for each topic we cover.

Topics

What EduGeek covers

Each topic collects the posts that explain it, from first principles to the decisions you make in production.

System Design
How large systems are built: scaling, caching, queues, databases and the trade-offs between them.
5 posts
AI Engineering
Building with LLMs: prompting, RAG, agents, evaluation and running models in production.
4 posts
AI Updates
The model releases, research and tooling changes that matter, explained without the hype.
2 posts
DevOps
Linux, Git, containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, infrastructure as code and observability.
21 posts
Cloud
AWS and cloud-native services, networking, cost and security, from first principles.
10 posts

Latest from EduGeek

The newest posts and videos across every topic. Read the explanation, watch the walkthrough, then check yourself with an assessment.

AI Updates: October 2026 for Engineers
2026-10-18 · AI Engineering, AI Updates
What changed in AI between late August and 18 October 2026: Claude 5.5, GPT-6, Gemini 4 Argon, price expiries, agent platforms, open weights and EU rules.
Multi-AZ on AWS: High Availability Without the Guesswork
2026-10-18 · System Design, DevOps, Cloud
How each AWS tier behaves when an Availability Zone fails, with the capacity math, failover time budgets, fault-injection tests and cost trade-offs.
Caching Strategies: Cache-Aside, Write-Through, Write-Behind
2026-10-18 · System Design
How cache-aside, read-through, write-through and write-behind differ, why invalidation is hard, and how to stop stampedes, with tested TypeScript code.
Cloud Cost Optimization: FinOps Basics for Engineers
2026-10-18 · DevOps, Cloud
FinOps for engineers: the inform-optimize-operate loop, tagging, the cost levers in order of safety, Kubernetes waste, unit costs and cultural pitfalls.
System Design Walkthrough: Designing a URL Shortener
2026-10-18 · System Design
A worked design for a URL shortener: 100M links/month estimates, ID generation options compared, 301 vs 302, caching, analytics, abuse and 100x scale.
How to Evaluate LLM Applications: A Practical Guide to Evals
2026-10-18 · AI Engineering
How to build golden datasets, combine code checks with calibrated LLM judges, measure RAG and agents, and gate CI on confidence intervals.

All posts

Read it once. Understand it properly.

Every post is free to read, with no account needed. Start with the newest writing or pick a topic.

Read the blog