System Design Interview — An Insider’s Guide by Alex Xu or Designing Data-Intensive Applications? Which is better?

The article compares two popular system design resources: Designing Data-Intensive Applications (DDIA) by Martin Kleppmann, which provides deep theoretical foundations on distributed systems and data engineering, and System Design Interview (SDI) by Alex Xu, which focuses on practical interview preparation with step-by-step frameworks. DDIA is best for long-term knowledge building, while SDI is ideal for candidates who need interview-ready strategies in a shorter timeframe.