If you're a backend engineer with 2–4 years of experience and dreaming of joining FAANG or a top-tier product company, this roadmap is for you.

At this level, you’re expected not just to write code, but to design scalable systems, understand trade-offs, and think like an engineer who builds for millions.

Here’s a deep-dive roadmap to get you there.

🔥 1. Master Your Programming Language

Pick one backend language and go all-in:

  • Java – preferred by Google and Amazon
  • C++ – still strong at Meta and Google for performance-critical roles
  • Go – loved at Netflix, Dropbox, Google
  • Python – used at YouTube, Spotify, and for ML-heavy systems

💡 What to focus on:

  • OOP design principles
  • Multithreading & concurrency
  • Collections, memory management
  • Writing clean, maintainable code

🏗️ 2. Scalable System Design

This is the most important round for FAANG.

Learn to design real-world systems like:

  • TinyURL (URL shortener)
  • WhatsApp backend (real-time communication)
  • Uber backend (geo + matching)
  • YouTube (video storage, streaming)
  • Instagram (news feed, stories)
  • Rate limiter, notification system, search service

🛠 Tools:

  • diagrams.net for drawing architecture
  • Notion or Obsidian for keeping notes

📚 Resources:

🧠 3. Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)

FAANG still uses DSA to filter strong problem solvers.

Practice consistently:

  • Core topics: Arrays, Hashmaps, Trees, Graphs, Tries, Heaps, DP
  • Bonus: Sliding window, prefix sum, backtracking

🚀 Platforms:

  • LeetCode – especially Top 150
  • NeetCode roadmap
  • InterviewBit

☁️ 4. Cloud & Infrastructure (Real-World Skills)

Modern backend = understanding infra.

🔧 Learn:

  • Docker – containerization
  • Kubernetes – orchestration (bonus)
  • AWS / GCP – EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, IAM, DynamoDB
  • CI/CD pipelines – GitHub Actions, Jenkins
  • IaC tools – Terraform

📦 5. Databases – Relational, NoSQL, and Beyond

Be strong in both SQL and NoSQL.

✅ Know:

  • PostgreSQL/MySQL – indexes, query plans, joins, isolation levels
  • Redis – caching, pub/sub, TTLs
  • DynamoDB – partitioning, LSI/GSI
  • MongoDB – schema design, use-cases

🧠 Concepts:

  • Sharding & Replication
  • CAP Theorem
  • ACID vs BASE
  • Denormalization trade-offs

📊 6. Monitoring & Observability

Every large system needs observability.

📌 Tools:

  • Prometheus + Grafana – metrics and dashboards
  • ELK Stack / Fluentd – logs
  • OpenTelemetry / Jaeger – tracing

🔐 7. Security and Authentication

Don’t just build features — build secure ones.

🔐 Must-know:

  • OAuth2, JWT, SAML
  • HTTPS, SSL/TLS
  • Hashing: bcrypt, PBKDF2
  • API security best practices

✉️ 8. Async Processing & Messaging

For scalable systems, async is key.

📬 Learn:

  • Kafka – stream processing
  • SQS / RabbitMQ / Redis Streams – queues and event-driven systems
  • CRON Jobs, Worker Queues, Event sourcing

📚 9. Bonus Knowledge (That Impresses in Interviews)

💡 Advanced Concepts:

  • Paxos, Raft, Leader election
  • Distributed systems theory
  • Eventual consistency, Idempotency
  • Circuit breakers, bulkheads (Resilience patterns)
  • Design Patterns (Factory, Singleton, Observer)
  • gRPC, GraphQL – modern API tech

📌 Final Thoughts

To crack FAANG backend roles, you're expected to:

  • Write clean, reliable code
  • Design fault-tolerant distributed systems
  • Make trade-offs consciously
  • Communicate ideas clearly — on whiteboard, in code, and in interviews

Want a free Notion template with a 6-month study plan, tracker, and resources? I built one while preparing — feel free to reach out!