This is super helpful as a primer (especially the bits about knowing which kinds of infra go where and doing capacity planning BEFORE architecting anything) but

This is super helpful as a primer (especially the bits about knowing which kinds of infra go where and doing capacity planning BEFORE architecting anything) but is not a replacement for actually having done it somewhere, since there are so many tools and tricks that are difficult to convey in a single guide. I say this because this guide is often used by engineers trying to job hop their way into staff+ roles without having the requisite experience to back that up. Put another way, this guide will help you answer "design Netflix," (I.e. narrow the scope, capacity plan, diagram the ideal path, replace with infrastructure, discuss tradeoffs) but will NOT help you answer "tell me about a time where you designed a large-scale system and how you would've made it better given the chance"