What do you think?
Rate this book
The Accidental CTO: A system Design Story - How i scaled from zero to a Million Store on Dukaan, Without a CS Degree.
244 pages, Hardcover
Published September 22, 2025
4 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 3, 2025
I found The Accidental CTO amazing. It’s a thriller at its core, yet deeply insightful. What stood out to me is how it’s written in a way that anyone, even people from a non-tech background, can appreciate the nuances of building technology and leadership from the ground up.
Each chapter builds on the previous one. In Chapter 7, when the author introduced the idea of adding triggers in the database, I found myself thinking, why not handle this using a queue instead? Then, in Chapter 9, that exact design is revisited and strengthened, fixing the reliability gaps and evolving the system into something that is more production-ready. That kind of progressive refinement makes the story not just educational but genuinely exciting to read. Any good mystery leaves obvious bread crumbs for the reader.
In my opinion, this book encourages and inspires people who might otherwise be deterred from having ambitious goals. It’s a great reminder to think big and chase those BHAGs with curiosity and persistence.
Each chapter builds on the previous one. In Chapter 7, when the author introduced the idea of adding triggers in the database, I found myself thinking, why not handle this using a queue instead? Then, in Chapter 9, that exact design is revisited and strengthened, fixing the reliability gaps and evolving the system into something that is more production-ready. That kind of progressive refinement makes the story not just educational but genuinely exciting to read. Any good mystery leaves obvious bread crumbs for the reader.
In my opinion, this book encourages and inspires people who might otherwise be deterred from having ambitious goals. It’s a great reminder to think big and chase those BHAGs with curiosity and persistence.
October 1, 2025
This book is raw, unfiltered, providing valuable insights. I think this is the way everyone should learn about system design. We do cram concepts but learning the WHY and WHEN is more important. This book talks about that.
How Subhash starts talking about his journey, and how he proceeds smoothly, iteratively, explaining each and every problem, solution, implementation, impact in a simple manner with daily life analogies is simply amazing.
Everyone should read this book, you will not only learn system design concepts, but more importantly how to solve a real world problem. One thing I liked is Subhash didn't have any technical background and hence he didn't knew these stuff upfront. So it was like finding solutions when you encounter an issue, and that's how you learn. It's not necessary to know everything upfront. We can learn on the go.
How Subhash starts talking about his journey, and how he proceeds smoothly, iteratively, explaining each and every problem, solution, implementation, impact in a simple manner with daily life analogies is simply amazing.
Everyone should read this book, you will not only learn system design concepts, but more importantly how to solve a real world problem. One thing I liked is Subhash didn't have any technical background and hence he didn't knew these stuff upfront. So it was like finding solutions when you encounter an issue, and that's how you learn. It's not necessary to know everything upfront. We can learn on the go.
October 31, 2025
Good explanation about how the system works and how dukaan did an incremental approach for scaling.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews