Frequently Asked Questions

SysDesAi is an AI-powered software architecture and system design platform with a built-in architect community. Its core product is an AI Software Architect that guides you through designing systems step by step — from clarifying requirements to generating architecture diagrams, data models, sequence flows, and capacity estimates. Beyond the AI architect, SysDesAi includes a gallery of 48+ explorable architecture walkthroughs, a free interactive course with tests and certificate, a curated news feed from 35+ engineering blogs, and a full community platform with architect profiles, discussions forum, leaderboard, activity feed, and more.

You describe a system (e.g., "Design a URL shortener like bit.ly") and choose your mode. In Copilot mode, the AI asks clarifying questions and you guide each step. In Autopilot mode, the AI makes reasonable assumptions, answers its own questions, and generates the entire design for you — problem analysis, scope, capacity estimates, architecture diagrams, data flows, and scalability strategy — all automatically. Either way, you can chat with the AI at any step to iterate, request changes, or explore alternatives. When you're done, you can export the full design as a Markdown spec for AI coding agents like Cursor, Claude Code, or Copilot.

The Design Gallery contains 48+ community-contributed software architecture walkthroughs. Each design shows the complete step-by-step architecture breakdown with diagrams, data models, sequence flows, and capacity estimates. You can explore any design, ask questions via AI chat, fork it to create your own version, upvote your favorites, bookmark designs for later, and publish your own designs to share with the community.

The Software Architecture Academy is a free, comprehensive course covering software architecture and system design — from fundamentals to distributed systems and interview strategy. It includes 11 modules with 60+ lessons, interactive AI chat in every lesson, knowledge tests (MCQ, true/false, matching), and a completion certificate for users who pass all tests.

SysDesAi has a full architect community platform. You get a public profile showcasing your designs, expertise areas, and reputation. You can follow other architects and see their activity in a personalized feed. The Discussions forum lets you ask questions, share ideas, and engage in threaded conversations with voting and comments. A Leaderboard ranks architects by reputation with weekly, monthly, and all-time views — plus a featured "Architect of the Week." You also get real-time notifications for upvotes, comments, follows, forks, and mentions.

The Architects Directory lets you discover and connect with software architects on the platform. You can search by name, filter by expertise area (e.g., Microservices, Cloud Architecture, Database Design), and sort by reputation or follower count. The Leaderboard ranks the top 50 architects by reputation score across weekly, monthly, and all-time periods. Top contributors earn levels, streak badges, and the #1 architect each week is featured on the Leaderboard page.

The Software Architecture Academy course, Design Gallery, News feed, Discussions forum, Architects Directory, Leaderboard, and all community features are completely free — no credits, no limits. New users also get 50 free credits for AI architect sessions. If you bring your own API key (Google Gemini or Anthropic Claude), AI design sessions are entirely free with no credit cost at all — unlimited designs, unlimited chat, zero cost. Credit packs start at $5 for users who prefer not to use their own key.

Yes. SysDesAi is widely used for system design interview prep. The AI architect simulates a real design interview by asking clarifying questions and guiding you through the design process step by step. The Academy includes a dedicated Interview Strategy module, and the Gallery contains real-world design examples commonly asked in FAANG and tech interviews. You can also export any design as a structured Markdown document to study offline.

Yes. Every completed design can be exported as a full Markdown specification document — organized by phase with requirements, capacity estimates, API endpoints, data models, architecture diagrams, and sequence flows. The export is formatted specifically for AI coding agents like Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, and GitHub Copilot, so you can paste it directly to start building. You can also copy it to your clipboard or download it as a .md file.