Does system design need coding?

System design doesn't necessarily require coding, but it involves understanding the architecture and technical concepts behind building scalable and efficient systems. While coding is not always required in the design process itself, having strong programming knowledge is beneficial when making design decisions about things like APIs, database structures, and caching strategies.

Here's how coding relates to system design:

1. Understanding Implementation

Having coding knowledge helps you understand how various components will be implemented. For example, knowing how databases interact with APIs or how to write scalable algorithms can influence your system design decisions.

2. High-Level Design

In most system design discussions or interviews, you typically won't need to write code. The focus is on creating the architecture, identifying components (frontend, backend, data storage), and explaining how they interact. The aim is to describe how the system will function, not how to implement it in detail with code.

3. Low-Level Design

In some cases, especially in real-world projects, you may need to dive deeper into the design and include more detailed pseudocode or architecture-specific coding snippets. For example, when implementing microservices, you might discuss how certain APIs will be structured and give an overview of the coding logic.

4. Code Review and Refactoring

While system design isn’t about writing detailed code, a designer or architect often reviews or guides implementation by evaluating the code written by development teams to ensure it aligns with the intended system architecture.

Learn System Design Without Coding

If you're preparing for system design interviews, coding knowledge helps, but the emphasis is on architectural decisions. You can practice with resources like:

• Grokking System Design Fundamentals for beginners.
• Grokking the System Design Interview for practical scenarios.

By focusing on high-level architecture and understanding how different components of a system interact, you can excel in system design even without directly writing code.