Samarth Batra
Senior Software Engineer. Currently AWS, and former Stripe.
I write about complex systems—software, AI, autonomy, infrastructure, and the people who build them.
Deep dives, essays, and technical breakdowns on distributed systems, AI & autonomy, engineering careers, and how complex systems behave in the real world.
This site is where I think in public. I write to understand complex systems—technical and human—and to document what I learn along the way.
Current: AWS Config · Previously: AWS Route53 · Stripe
Tier-0 systems · DNS · Edge compute · HA infra
Featured Writing
FeaturedGood at Software Interviewing ≠ Good at the Job
Being good at software interviews is not the same thing as being good at the job. We all nod at this like it is obvious—and then proceed to build entire hiring pipelines that assume the exact opposite.
Coming soon: Systems deep dive
Exploring distributed systems, infrastructure patterns, and how things scale in production
Coming soon: AI & Autonomy
Exploring ML systems, autonomy challenges, and what self-driving teaches us about complex systems
What I Write About
Systems & Infrastructure
Distributed systems, control planes, reliability, and building things that scale
AI, Autonomy & Robotics
How ML systems work, autonomy challenges, and why self-driving is a long-tail problem
How Large-Scale Systems Fail
Real postmortems, incident response, and what actually breaks in production
Engineering Careers & Interviews
What tech interviews test, how to study deeply, and building infrastructure teams
How I Learn & Think
Approaching complex domains, understanding systems, and thinking in public
Essays & Ideas
Longer-form thinking on technology, organizations, and how things really work