Review — Is Front-End System Design Course by Evgenii Ray on Frontend Masters Worth?

Review — Is Front-End System Design Course by Evgenii Ray on Frontend Masters Worth it?

Is Front-End System Design Course by Evgenii Ray worth it?

Is Front-End System Design Course by Evgenii Ray worth it?

Hello guys, If you’re preparing for frontend system design interviews, trying to scale as a senior frontend engineer, or want to finally understand how the browser really works under the hood, then Evgenii Ray’s Front-End System Design course might be exactly what you need.

As someone who has worked in both frontend and backend and struggled for years to connect low-level browser fundamentals with scalable UI architecture, I can confidently say:

This is not just another frontend course — it’s a systems-level perspective on frontend architecture

Let me break down why this course is one of the most important investments frontend engineers can make in 2025 — and who will benefit the most from it.

Front-End System Design: Advanced UI, Performance & Architecture Techniques to Ace Interviews

Who Is This Course For?

This course is ideal for:

  • Frontend engineers preparing for system design interviews
  • Mid-to-senior developers aiming to build scalable, performant UIs
  • Anyone who wants to understand browser internals and frontend architecture
  • Engineers who want to grow beyond frameworks and write performance-sensitive code

What Makes This Course Unique?

Unlike typical frontend courses that teach you framework-specific workflows, Evgenii takes you on a deep dive into:

  • Browser rendering internals
  • DOM and layout performance
  • Infinite scrolling and virtualization
  • Real-world state and network management
  • System design for complex UIs like news feeds

He doesn’t just explain what happens — he explains why and how it impacts real-world app performance.

By the way, you would need a Frontend Masters membership to watch this course which would cost around $390 for one year or $39 per month if you opt for monthly plan.

This will give you access to 200+ high-quality and in-depth courses. I am big fan of Frontend Masters courses and I highly recommend you to join them if you want to take your web development and JavaScript skills to next level.

Pricing

Course Structure and Content

Here are key topics covered in this course and what are you going to learn

1. Core Browser & Layout Fundamentals

You’ll gain a strong mental model of:

  • The Box Model, formatting contexts, and positioning
  • The difference between render layers and graphic layers
  • How reflows and repaints affect performance
  • GPU vs CPU rendering paths

Evgenii breaks these down with live diagrams, rendering timelines, and interview-relevant examples.

What I liked: It explains how CSS rules can shift performance onto the GPU, which is often missed in interviews and real projects alike.

2. DOM API & Performance

This section was surprisingly deep. Evgenii shows:

  • How different query methods (like getElementById vs querySelector) impact performance
  • Best practices for DOM mutations and rendering
  • Real-world templating with <template> and fragment insertion

What I liked: Unlike most courses, he shows space-time complexity of DOM queries and how browsers optimize them. Great prep for performance design rounds.

3. Observer APIs and Infinite Scrolling

Here you implement:

  • IntersectionObserver
  • MutationObserver
  • ResizeObserver

And apply them to real UI tasks like:

  • Building infinite scroll from scratch
  • Detecting dynamic mutations in content
  • Responsive adjustments with ResizeObserver

What I liked: It’s code-first and practical, with challenges that simulate actual product features.

4. Virtualization (The Underrated Gold)

This is the highlight of the course if you’re interviewing for senior frontend roles.

You’ll:

  • Implement list virtualization from scratch
  • Learn memory pooling, recycling DOM nodes, scroll performance
  • Avoid expensive DOM insertions by reusing elements

What I liked: Evgenii shows how top apps like Twitter and Facebook load thousands of items without killing performance. You can reuse this knowledge in interviews and production.

5. Application State & Network Architecture

The course covers:

  • Designing application state with IndexedDB, SessionStorage, and normalized state
  • When to use REST, GraphQL, SSE or WebSockets
  • Understanding latency, battery impact, and TCP overhead
  • Managing event streams and UI updates from real-time sources

What I liked: He balances client-side architecture with network and backend awareness — a rare combo in frontend courses.

6. Final System Design Interview Simulation

You’ll do a full system design exercise:
Designing a Twitter-like news feed UI

You diagram:

  • State flows
  • API contracts
  • UI component structure
  • Performance optimizations (code-splitting, virtualization, lazy loading)

What I liked: This is exactly what Big Tech frontend interviews ask for. It’s like a mock system design round with expert guidance.

Real-World Value (Not Just Theory)

This isn’t just about acing interviews.

You’ll walk away with knowledge to:

  • Architect scalable SPAs
  • Design responsive, accessible, fast UIs
  • Optimize reflows, layering, memory leaks, and bundling
  • Speak confidently about system tradeoffs with backend and product teams

Whether you’re working on an enterprise dashboard, media-heavy app, or a SaaS product, this course levels up your thinking.

Pros and Highlights

  1. Deep dive into browser internals and rendering
  2. Covers DOM performance with real complexity analysis
  3. Hands-on exercises for every module
  4. Ends with a real system design mock interview
  5. Taught by a practicing engineer, not just a content creator
  6. Content is framework-agnostic — works with React, Vue, Angular, or vanilla JS
  7. Frontend Masters subscription gives access to other stellar system design and JS performance courses too

Any Downsides?

🔸 No framework-specific examples (might be a downside if you want React/Vue demos)
🔸 Requires decent comfort with vanilla JS/DOM APIs
🔸 May feel intense if you’ve never built complex UIs before

That said, this course is gold for serious frontend engineers.

Is Frontend System Design course Worth It?

Absolutely yes — if you’re preparing for frontend system design interviews or building performance-critical UI apps.

Evgenii Ray’s Front-End System Design course is a rare combination of low-level mastery and real-world architectural thinking.

I’d go as far to say that this is the best frontend system design prep course in 2025 — and I’ve taken almost all of them.

Bonus Tip

Pair this course with:

Together, they’ll make you interview-ready and system-ready.

Pro tip: Don’t just consume courses — practice by writing out your designs, discussing them with peers, and doing mock interviews.

Other System Design Tutorials and Resources you may like

All the best for your System Design Interviews, if you have any doubts or questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

P. S. — If you just want to do one thing at this moment, go Front-End System Design course and start learning frontend System Design, you will thank me later. It’s one of the most comprehensive resource for frontend system design interviews.

Front-End System Design: Advanced UI, Performance & Architecture Techniques to Ace Interviews

Review — Is Front-End System Design Course by Evgenii Ray on Frontend Masters Worth? was originally published in Javarevisited on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This post first appeared on Read More

Related Posts