Mikhail Smarshchok

Frequently asked questions

Who is Mikhail Smarshchok?

Mikhail Smarshchok is a software engineer with more than 15 years of industry experience, including time at AWS and a staff-engineer role at Stripe. He focuses on scalable, low-latency distributed systems and teaches the topic on YouTube and through a paid course.

What is Mikhail Smarshchok known for?

He runs the System Design Interview YouTube channel, a compact but highly regarded set of videos that walk through services like Distributed Cache, Distributed Queue, and Rate Limiting at a level aimed at Senior and Staff candidates.

What does System Design for Interviews and Beyond cover?

The paid course expands the YouTube material into a complete curriculum and reportedly took about two years to produce. It covers foundational building blocks, end-to-end design problems, and the kinds of trade-off discussions interviewers expect at senior engineering levels.

Is the content beginner-friendly?

The material assumes you already write production code and understand basics like HTTP, databases, and caching. It is aimed at engineers preparing for senior or staff-level interviews rather than first-time programmers.

Is Mikhail Smarshchok the same person as ByteByteGo?

No. ByteByteGo is a separate channel and brand run by Alex Xu and Sahn Lam, authors of the System Design Interview book series. Mikhail Smarshchok operates the unrelated System Design Interview channel and his own course platform.

Related instructors

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• Udemy
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