Learning track · Roadmap
Transactions & Isolation — Learning Track (Part 2)
Published
Your map for Part 2 of the series. Part 1 was Distributed Systems — Fundamentals (replication consistency); this part is the other half — transaction isolation: what happens when concurrent transactions touch the same data.
- Mission: write backend code that doesn’t corrupt data under concurrency — the daily, high-leverage half of “consistency.”
- Format: general theory, concrete SQL/scenario examples. Delivered as a lean EPUB for Kindle (glossary kept in the
.md, out of the book) plus markdown source here. - Level: builds on Part 1; each lesson adds senior-level depth (real-DB gotchas).
Where you are now
| Status | All 9 lessons built ✅ — read as one comprehensive page + deep-dive supplements |
| Read it | book-2-transactions-isolation-fundamentals.epub (send to Kindle) · or transactions-isolation-fundamentals.md |
| How to work it | Read in order; do each self-check from memory before peeking |
| Deep dive | mvcc-internals-deep-dive.epub — a go-deeper supplement to Lesson 4 (heap vs undo-log · the visibility test · VACUUM bloat trap · xid wraparound) |
| Deep dive | ssi-deep-dive.epub — a go-deeper supplement to Lesson 6 (write skew · serializable ⟺ acyclic graph · the dangerous structure · SIRead locks & the 40001 abort · safe-snapshot read-only optimization) |
The 9-lesson path
| # | Lesson | The single win | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What a Transaction Promises (ACID) | What the four promises mean — and don’t | ✅ Built |
| 2 | The Anomalies | The catalog of concurrency bugs | ✅ Built |
| 3 | Isolation Levels: The Menu | The levels, and why the names lie | ✅ Built |
| 4 | Snapshot Isolation & MVCC | How Read Committed / SI actually work | ✅ Built |
| 5 | Lost Updates & Write Skew | The subtle invariant-breakers | ✅ Built |
| 6 | Serializability | Serial · 2PL · SSI | ✅ Built |
| 7 | Distributed Transactions & 2PC | Why two-phase commit blocks | ✅ Built |
| 8 | Sagas, Outbox & Idempotency | Eventual consistency for workflows | ✅ Built |
| 9 | Choosing Isolation in Practice | The senior decision tree | ✅ Built |
How every lesson is built: prose → a diagram → a self-check → an expert corner.
Progress checklist
- Lesson 1 — What a Transaction Promises (ACID)
- Lesson 2 — The Anomalies
- Lesson 3 — Isolation Levels
- Lesson 4 — Snapshot Isolation & MVCC
- Lesson 5 — Lost Updates & Write Skew
- Lesson 6 — Serializability
- Lesson 7 — Distributed Transactions & 2PC
- Lesson 8 — Sagas, Outbox & Idempotency
- Lesson 9 — Choosing Isolation in Practice
Tick each box as you finish its self-check; tell me where you want to go deeper.
Files in this folder
README.md ← index + roadmap + tracker
transactions-isolation-fundamentals.md ← full source (includes the glossary)
book-2-transactions-isolation-fundamentals.epub ← lean Kindle build (glossary excluded)
diagrams/
00-cover.svg / .png ← series cover (Part 2)
01-acid-atomicity.svg / .png ← Lesson 1
02-lost-update.svg / .png ← Lesson 2
03-isolation-matrix.svg / .png ← Lesson 3
04-mvcc-snapshot.svg / .png ← Lesson 4
05-write-skew.svg / .png ← Lesson 5
06-serializability-strategies.svg / .png ← Lesson 6
07-two-phase-commit.svg / .png ← Lesson 7
08-saga-compensation.svg / .png ← Lesson 8
09-isolation-decision.svg / .png ← Lesson 9Next in the series
Part 3 — Storage Engines & Data Modeling (LSM-trees vs B-trees, WAL, indexes, row vs column, schema design). Then Streaming & Event-Driven, then Applied Systems Design.