Build a Key-Value Database in Go: Complete Course from Scratch to Production
Master Database Engineering, Storage Engines & Systems Programming
Learn to build a production-ready key-value database from the ground up using Go. Master concurrency patterns, storage engines, networking, and optimization techniques used in real-world database systems.
What Makes This Course Different
Hands-On Learning
Build a complete database from scratch with real-world engineering decisions
Performance Focus
Learn optimization techniques used in production systems like Redis and etcd
Go Mastery
Master advanced Go patterns including concurrency, memory management, and profiling
Production Ready
Deploy with monitoring, security, and operational best practices
Distributed Systems
Understand replication, consensus, and high-availability patterns
Real-World Skills
Gain skills used by database engineers at top tech companies
Course Curriculum
This course is structured in 8 progressive modules, each building on the previous one:
Module 1: Foundation
Core Concepts & Architecture (Lessons 1-2)
Lesson 1: Introduction and Database Fundamentals
- • Understanding Key-Value Stores and their unique characteristics
- • Use cases and trade-offs vs relational databases
- • Real-world examples (Redis, etcd, Memcached)
- • Core Requirements Analysis and functional requirements
- • Architecture Planning and component identification
- • Interface design and API contracts
Hands-on Lab: Set up project repository and design initial API interface
Module 2: Storage Engine
Core Data Structures & Concurrency (Lessons 3-4)
Lesson 2: Building the Core Data Structure
- • HashMap Implementation and data structure choices
- • Go's native map vs custom implementation
- • Basic Operations (Get, Put, Delete) implementation
- • Value serialization strategies
- • Testing Strategy with unit tests and benchmarks
- • Property-based testing introduction
Hands-on Lab: Implement thread-unsafe in-memory key-value store
Lesson 3: Concurrency and Thread Safety
- • Concurrency Challenges and race conditions
- • Synchronization Primitives (Mutexes, RWMutex, Atomic operations)
- • sync.Map analysis and lock-free data structures
- • Fine-grained vs coarse-grained locking
- • Sharding for parallelism and lock striping
- • Optimistic concurrency control
Lab: Add thread-safe operations and implement sharded storage
Module 3: Persistence Layer
Storage and Durability (Weeks 4-6)
Lesson 4: Append-Only Log (Write-Ahead Log)
- • WAL Fundamentals and why append-only logs matter
- • Log structure and format design
- • File I/O in Go and binary encoding
- • Log entry format and checksums
- • Log Management and rotation policies
- • Error recovery strategies
Lab: Implement WAL with durability guarantees and crash recovery
Lesson 5: SSTables and LSM Trees
- • LSM Tree Architecture and memtable concepts
- • Sorted String Tables (SSTables) design
- • Multi-level compaction strategies
- • Memtable Implementation with skip lists
- • SSTable Format and block-based organization
- • Index structures and Bloom filters
Lab: Build memtable with automatic flushing and SSTable writer
Lesson 6: Compaction and Optimization
- • Compaction Strategies (size-tiered, leveled, universal)
- • Merge iterators and tombstone handling
- • Background compaction workers
- • Bloom filters for faster lookups
- • Block cache for hot data
- • Compression algorithms (Snappy, LZ4)
Lab: Implement leveled compaction and add Bloom filters
Module 4: Networking Layer
Client-Server Communication (Weeks 7-8)
Lesson 7: TCP Server and Protocol Design
- • Network Protocol Design and text vs binary protocols
- • Request-response patterns and pipelining
- • TCP Server in Go with net package
- • goroutine-per-connection model
- • Request Parsing and efficient buffer management
- • Protocol state machines
Lab: Build TCP server with Redis-compatible RESP protocol
Lesson 8: Client Library and Advanced Networking
- • Client Implementation and connection management
- • Retry logic and exponential backoff
- • Connection pooling and circuit breaker pattern
- • Pipelining for throughput optimization
- • Multiplexing connections and keep-alive
- • Error Handling and graceful degradation
Lab: Build Go client library with connection pooling
Module 5: Advanced Features
Transactions and Replication (Weeks 9-10)
Lesson 9: Transactions and ACID Properties
- • Transaction Fundamentals and ACID properties
- • Isolation levels and MVCC concepts
- • Snapshot isolation implementation
- • Transaction buffer and commit/rollback logic
- • Conflict detection and deadlock detection
- • Optimistic Concurrency and version numbers
Lab: Implement multi-key transactions with snapshot isolation
Lesson 10: Replication and High Availability
- • Replication Strategies (leader-follower, multi-leader)
- • Leaderless replication and quorum-based systems
- • Consensus algorithms overview (Raft)
- • Asynchronous vs synchronous replication
- • Replication lag handling and failover
- • Consistency Models and trade-offs
Lab: Implement leader-follower replication with configurable consistency
Module 6: Production Readiness
Monitoring and Performance (Weeks 11-12)
Lesson 11: Monitoring, Metrics, and Observability
- • Instrumentation with Prometheus metrics
- • Custom metric types and performance profiling
- • Key Metrics (latency, throughput, error rates)
- • Structured logging and distributed tracing
- • Health Checks and dependency monitoring
- • Debug mode implementation
Lab: Add comprehensive metrics and create Grafana dashboard
Lesson 12: Performance Optimization and Tuning
- • Profiling and Benchmarking with pprof
- • Memory profiling and leak detection
- • Hot path optimization and memory pooling
- • Zero-copy techniques and batch processing
- • Tuning Parameters and capacity planning
- • Load Testing and bottleneck identification
Lab: Profile and optimize critical paths, run load tests
Module 7: Deployment and Operations
Production Deployment (Weeks 13-14)
Lesson 13: Configuration and Deployment
- • Configuration Management and file formats
- • Environment variables and validation
- • Deployment Options (Docker, Kubernetes)
- • Systemd service setup
- • Backup and Recovery mechanisms
- • Disaster recovery planning
Lab: Create Docker image and Kubernetes manifests
Lesson 14: Security and Production Hardening
- • Security Fundamentals and authentication
- • Authorization and access control
- • TLS/SSL encryption and certificate management
- • Input validation and rate limiting
- • Resource limits and DoS protection
- • Operational Safety and graceful shutdown
Lab: Add authentication, implement TLS, create upgrade procedures
Module 8: Capstone Project
Final Implementation (Week 15)
Lesson 15: Final Project and Beyond
- • Feature Implementation (TTL, Pub/Sub, Lua scripting)
- • Secondary indexes and geo-spatial queries
- • Documentation and API documentation
- • Operational runbooks and architecture decisions
- • Open Source Preparation and CI/CD setup
- • Performance tuning guides
Final Project: Implement advanced features and prepare production deployment
What You'll Build
By the end of this course, you'll have built:
- • Complete Key-Value Database with full CRUD operations and persistence
- • LSM Tree Storage Engine with efficient write-optimized storage
- • High-Performance TCP Server with custom protocol implementation
- • Production-Ready Go Client Library with connection pooling
- • Transaction System with ACID-compliant multi-key transactions
- • Replication System with leader-follower replication
- • Monitoring Dashboard with Prometheus metrics and Grafana visualization
- • Docker Deployment with containerized production deployment
Prerequisites
- • Basic Go programming knowledge and syntax
- • Understanding of data structures (hash tables, trees, graphs)
- • Familiarity with command-line tools and terminal
- • Basic understanding of processes, memory, and I/O
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a key-value database and why should I learn to build one?
A key-value database is a simple but powerful data storage system that stores data as key-value pairs. Learning to build one teaches you fundamental database concepts, Go concurrency patterns, and systems programming skills used in production databases like Redis, etcd, and DynamoDB.
Is this course suitable for Go beginners?
This course is designed for intermediate to advanced Go developers. While we cover Go-specific patterns, having basic Go knowledge, understanding of data structures, and familiarity with command-line tools will help you get the most out of the course.
What will I build during this course?
You'll build a complete production-ready key-value database including storage engine, networking layer, transaction system, replication, monitoring, and deployment infrastructure. The final project will be a fully functional database ready for real-world use.
How long does it take to complete?
The course is designed to take 12-15 weeks (80-100 hours) to complete, including hands-on labs and practical exercises. You can learn at your own pace and revisit lessons as needed.
What technologies and concepts are covered?
We cover Go concurrency, LSM trees, write-ahead logs, TCP networking, transactions, replication, monitoring with Prometheus/Grafana, Docker/Kubernetes deployment, and advanced database concepts used in production systems.
Ready to Build Your Database?
Join thousands of developers who've mastered database engineering through this comprehensive Go course. From basic data structures to production deployment, you'll gain the knowledge and hands-on experience needed to build systems that scale.
Start Building Your Database