Learn by Simulating,
Not Just Reading.
Understand distributed systems through live interactive models — click components, run checkpoints, inspect packet hops, and watch recovery mechanisms in real time.
6
Topics
6
Checkpoints
100%
Free & Open
Foundations
/learn/server
Web Server Explorer
What is a server? What are endpoints? Send real HTTP requests to a simulated server and observe status codes, headers, and payload validation live.
/learn/glossary
Distributed Systems Glossary
Essential distributed systems terms defined clearly: Latency, Throughput, Partitioning, Load Balancers, Redis Cache-Aside, Message Queues, and 50+ more.
Guided Simulations
Load Balancers
Distributing traffic evenly across backend fleets
Learn how load balancers route incoming requests to multiple servers to prevent bottlenecks, scale capacity, and implement horizontal failover.
Cache-Aside Pattern
Accelerating data retrieval with Redis and Postgres
Understand the industry-standard cache-aside caching mechanism using a high-speed Redis cache in front of a Postgres database.
API Gateways
Centralized entry points for microservices routing
Master path-based routing, service pool mappings, and client query resolution using a centralized API Gateway node.
Valet Key Pattern
Offloading file upload bandwidth to Cloud Storage
Learn how to use pre-signed URLs to enable clients to upload large binary assets directly to object storage without choking backend servers.
Message Queues
Decoupling workloads with asynchronous message queues
Learn how message queues enable reliable, asynchronous communication, buffer spike traffic, and implement the competing consumers scaling pattern.
Publish / Subscribe
Event-driven microservices fanout routing
Learn how Pub/Sub brokers distribute messages to multiple subscriber services in parallel, enabling decoupled event-driven architectures.
Ready to build your own?
Launch the Interactive Sandbox to drag, configure, and connect nodes from scratch. Zero limits, real execution.