Readings

2026-10-08

Readings are short, targeted, and chosen to support the failure-first protocol development we do in lecture and the design-first work you do in DP1/DP2 and the capstone.

Baseline: this mapping is adapted from the previous offering’s reading list (Winter 2023 Term 1 syllabus) and aligned to the current lecture spine.

Where PDFs live: Canvas Files → Readings.

Core sources

Petrov: Alex Petrov, Database Internals (O’Reilly; selected chapters)
Kleppmann: Martin Kleppmann, Designing Data-Intensive Applications (O’Reilly; selected chapters)
Primary papers: Lamport (Paxos; Byzantine), Castro & Liskov (PBFT), Chandy-Lamport (snapshots)

Textbook access: both core books are O’Reilly titles and are available electronically to UBC students at no additional charge (via the UBC Library’s O’Reilly platform): UBC Library — O’Reilly for Higher Education (log in).

Accessibility: O’Reilly often provides audio versions for some titles/chapters. Audio can be helpful for commuting and for students whose first language is not English.

Week 01 (Jan 6 / Jan 8)

Tue (Jan 6) — Required: Start Here
Tue (Jan 6) — Required: Assessment & evidence chain
Tue (Jan 6) — Required: Using GenAI in this course without Goodharting it
Thu (Jan 8) — Required: Petrov, Chapters 1–2
Thu (Jan 8) — Required: DS Labs framework (how we use it)

Week 02 (Jan 13 / Jan 15)

Tue (Jan 13) — Required: Petrov, Chapters 3–4
Thu (Jan 15) — Required: Petrov, Chapter 5 and Chapter 7
Week 02 — Required: DS Labs Client/Server lab handout (Gradescope)
Recommended background: “Distributed Systems for Fun and Profit” (partial failure, retries/timeouts): https://book.mixu.net/distsys/

Week 03 (Jan 20 / Jan 22)

Tue (Jan 20) — Required: Kleppmann, Chapter 7 (Transactions)
Thu (Jan 22) — Required: Petrov, Chapter 13 (Distributed Transactions)
Thu (Jan 22) — Required: Introduction to formal verification (guest lecture slot): modeling + TLA+/PlusCal background
Tool intro: Learn TLA+ (PlusCal optional): https://learntla.com/

Week 04 (Jan 27 / Jan 29)

Tue (Jan 27) — Required: Petrov, Chapter 8 (through Two Generals’ Problem)
Thu (Jan 29) — Required: Petrov, Chapter 8 (from FLP Impossibility to end)
Week 04 — Required: DP1 prompt: Design Project 1 — Primary/Backup replication

Week 05 (Feb 3 / Feb 5)

Tue (Feb 3) — Required: Petrov, Chapter 11 (Replication & Consistency)
Thu (Feb 5) — Required: Kleppmann, Chapter 5 (Replication)

Week 06 (Feb 10 / Feb 12)

Tue (Feb 10) — Required: Petrov, Chapter 10 (Leader Election)
Thu (Feb 12) — Required: Petrov, Chapter 14 (Consensus)
Week 06 — Required: Lamport’s bakery algorithm (mutual exclusion as “ballots before Paxos”): bakery.pdf
Week 06 — Required: Viewstamped Replication (primary/backup with view change as a “Raft 25 years earlier” lens): 1988 Viewstamped Replication (Oki-Liskov).pdf
Week 06 — Required: DP1 peer review + implementation instructions (Canvas assignments)

Week 07 (Feb 24 / Feb 26)

Tue (Feb 24) — Required: Lamport, “Paxos Made Simple”: paxos-simple-Copy.pdf
Thu (Feb 26) — Required: Petrov, Chapter 14 (Consensus) — continue/discuss
Week 07 — Recommended: Lamport, “The Part-Time Parliament” (for the underlying ballot/acceptor story): 1998 The Part-Time Parliament (Lamport).pdf
Week 07 — Required: DP2 prompt: Design Project 2 — Paxos

Week 08 (Mar 3 / Mar 5)

Tue (Mar 3) — Required: Altinbuken & van Renesse, “Paxos Made Moderately Complex”: PaxosMMCAltinbukenVanRenesse.pdf
Thu (Mar 5) — Required: Kleppmann, Chapter 6 (Partitioning)
Week 08 — Recommended: Ongaro & Ousterhout, “In Search of an Understandable Consensus Algorithm (Raft)”: 2014 In Search of an Understandable Consensus Algorithm (Raft).pdf
Week 08 — Recommended: “Viewstamped Replication Revisited” (modernized write-up of the VR protocol): 2012 Viewstamped Replication Revisited.pdf
Tool refresher: Learn TLA+ (model-checking safety properties): https://learntla.com/

Week 09 (Mar 10 / Mar 12)

Tue (Mar 10) — Required: Chandy & Lamport, “Distributed Snapshots”: 1985 Distributed Snapshots Determining Global States of Distributed Systems.pdf
Thu (Mar 12) — Required: Mid-course “Goodhart revisit” notes (posted in Week 09 module)

Week 10 (Mar 17 / Mar 19)

Tue (Mar 17) — Required: Lamport et al., “The Byzantine Generals Problem”: 1982 The Byzantine Generals Problem OCR.pdf
Thu (Mar 19) — Required: Castro & Liskov, “Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance”: 1999 Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance.pdf

Week 11 (Mar 24 / Mar 26)

Tue (Mar 24) — Required: “Making Reads in BFT SMR Fast, Linearizable and Live” (2021): 2021 Making Reads in BFT State Machine Replication Fast Linearizable and Live.pdf
Thu (Mar 26) — Required: Bitcoin whitepaper (ledger incentives): https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Week 12 (Mar 31 / Apr 2)

Tue (Mar 31) — Required: Petrov, Chapter 12 (Anti-Entropy & Dissemination)
Thu (Apr 2) — Required: “A comprehensive study of Convergent and Commutative Replicated Data Types” (CRDT overview): https://hal.inria.fr/inria-00555588/document

Week 13 (Apr 7 / Apr 9)

Low-risk week: project reviews, demos, and capstone clinics (no required reading).