Performance Evaluation of Computer Systems

How do you ensure a computer system can handle heavy workloads without crashing or slowing down? Understanding how to measure and predict system behavior is critical for designing efficient software and infrastructure. This course provides a clear, math-friendly introduction to analyzing the performance of computer systems, networks, and software applications. You will transition from guessing system capacity to systematically evaluating throughput, latency, and resource utilization. What you'll learn: Understand core performance metrics like throughput, response time, and utilization; Apply basic queuing theory models to predict system bottlenecks; Design and analyze performance simulation models; Configure modern system observability and profiling tools; Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks in memory, CPU, and storage. You will start with the fundamental terminology of computer systems performance, move into mathematical modeling with queuing networks, and finish with practical strategies for real-world system testing and optimization. This course is designed for beginner software engineers, system administrators, and computer science students with no prior background in performance engineering. Start reading today to master the art of building fast, scalable, and reliable computer systems.