My input on Designing Data Intensive Applications audiobook

Designing Data-Intensive Applications is a book written by Martin Kleppmann. The paper version consists of 590 pages, and the audiobook is about 21 hours! So, get ready for a marathon if you choose the audio version!

This book is truly unique. The author has extensive knowledge in the fields of databases and distributed system design. Typically, IT professionals learn about the functionalities of various databases and the problems they address. This book, however, goes beyond that—it delves into the complexities tackled by different databases behind the scenes.

Kleppmann is well-versed in many popular databases, including MongoDB, Cassandra, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and others. He explains real-world issues and discusses existing solutions, detailing the pros and cons of each. He also explains which database systems implement particular approaches.

The content of the book is very comprehensive. It covers different algorithms for finding data on disk, their pros and cons, data replication, master-slave nodes, various real-world implementations, data indexing, cluster management, locks, data consistency and many other topics.

If you have been working on serious distributed applications, you will deeply appreciate and connect with the content. It's fascinating to understand how the things you work on daily or have worked on in the past are actually executed behind the scene.

The narration and structure of the book are excellent. However, I must admit that I struggled to understand some parts, as they were so deep and beyond my database knowledge.

Who is the target audience for this book?

In my opinion, this book is a must-read for database administrators and engineers whose main focus is on databases. Additionally, those working on distributed applications will find this book highly enjoyable and informative.