About this episode

In this episode, Martin Kleppmann discusses his influential book on data-intensive applications and shares insights from his career in tech and academia.

Brought to You By: • Statsig — ⁠ The unified platform for flags, analytics, experiments, and more. • Sonar – The makers of SonarQube, the industry standard for automated code review • WorkOS – Everything you need to make your app enterprise ready. — Martin Kleppmann is a researcher and the author of Designing Data-Intensive Applications , one of the most influential books on modern distributed systems. As of this month, the second, heavily updated edition of the book is out . In this episode of Pragmatic Engineer, we discuss Martin’s career in tech building startups, how he ended up writing this iconic book, and what he’s focused on now after moving into academia. We talk about the tradeoffs behind modern infrastructure, how the cloud has changed what it means to scale, and the thinking behind Designing Data-Intensive Applications, including what’s changing in the second edition. Martin reflects on lessons from building startups like Rapportive, which he sold to LinkedIn, and shares how his experience in both academia and industry shaped his perspective. We also explore what’s ahead: why formal verification may become more important in an AI-assisted world, the challenges of…

People in this episode

Host: Gergely Orosz

Guest: Martin Kleppmann

Topics covered

• data-intensive applications
• distributed systems
• cloud infrastructure
• startups
• cryptography
• AI-assisted software

Keywords

• data-intensive applications
• distributed systems
• cloud scaling
• formal verification
• local-first software
• cryptography
• supply chain transparency

Sponsors

Statsig, Sonar, WorkOS

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: LinkedIn, Rapportive

Books & works: Designing Data-Intensive Applications

More episodes of The Pragmatic Engineer

• DHH’s new way of writing code · April 8, 2026 · 1h 46m
• Scaling Uber with Thuan Pham (Uber’s first CTO) · April 1, 2026 · 1h 39m
• Building WhatsApp with Jean Lee · March 18, 2026 · 1h 11m
• From IDEs to AI Agents with Steve Yegge · March 11, 2026 · 1h 31m
• Building Claude Code with Boris Cherny · March 4, 2026 · 1h 37m
• Mitchell Hashimoto’s new way of writing code · February 25, 2026 · 1h 58m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Pragmatic Engineer podcast page.