May 15, 2026 — 14 min — Systems Notes
System Design Papers: A Reading Map from GFS to AI Infrastructure
A de-duplicated taxonomy for system design papers: what to read first, what each paper teaches, and how to move from classic distributed systems into modern databases, observability, serverless, and AI infrastructure.
Outcome: Reader can turn scattered system-design paper lists into a practical reading path, identify duplicates and mixed source types, and choose papers by the design question they answer instead of by prestige.