15 Best System Design Courses on Coursera
We compared 15 System Design courses currently listed on Coursera, priced from $49.00 to $79.00. 10 come from a named university or institution, including University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Irvine and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. They are ordered by our CourseAsk score, which is built from how thoroughly each course describes what it teaches, whether it comes from a named institution, and how it compares on price — not from star ratings, which our course data does not include.
- Courses compared
- 15
- Price range
- $49.00 – $79.00
- Providers
- Coursera
- Last updated
- 30 Aug 2026
How these 15 courses were chosen
Every course below is a real, currently listed course from Coursera, matched to "system design" by our catalog and ordered by our CourseAsk score. Courses whose own title names the topic rank above those only tagged with it.
The grade on each entry scores how much the provider publishes about the course before you pay — the length and detail of the description, whether it lists learning outcomes and objectives — and whether a named university or institution stands behind it. A is fully documented and institution-backed; E is little more than a title and a price. Courses with almost nothing published are left ungraded rather than marked down, because an unknown course and a poor one are not the same thing.
There are no star ratings on this page — the course feeds we license do not include them, and we would rather leave a column out than fill it with a number we cannot stand behind. What we do have is price: these range from $49.00 to $79.00, as listed by the provider when we last updated the page.
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1
Exploring Renewable Energy Schemes
Offered by University of Pennsylvania
What do you picture when you hear the term “renewable energy?” Do you imagine fields of solar panels, giant windmills, or huge hydroelectric dams? Those are all examples of large-scale, grid-tied systems. In this course,...
$49.00listed price -
2
Programming for the Internet of Things Project
Offered by University of California, Irvine
In this Capstone course, you will design a microcontroller-based embedded system. As an option, you can also build and test a system. The focus of your project will be to design the system so that it can be built on a lo...
$69.00listed price -
3
Software Engineering
Offered by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Software development is not just about coding, it also involves the application of scientific knowledge and well-defined engineering techniques to produce maintainable, scalable, cost-effective and on-schedule software p...
$49.00listed price -
4
Digital Manufacturing
Offered by Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
This specialization provides a comprehensive understanding of computer-aided process planning, guiding learners from a CAD model to the final product. It covers the model processing stage and explores suitable printing t...
$49.00listed price -
5
Internet of Things and AI Cloud
Offered by University of California San Diego
This Specialization covers the development of Internet of Things (IoT) products and services—including devices for sensing, actuation, processing, and communication—to help you develop skills and experiences you can empl...
$49.00listed price -
6
Solar Energy for Engineers, Architects and Code Inspectors
Offered by University at Buffalo
This specialization provides an overview of solar photovoltaics (PV), intricacies of solar system design, and a framework for solar PV project management. Targeted for engineers, HVAC installers, architects and building...
$49.00listed price -
7
Packaging Design for the Circular Economy
Offered by Siemens & University of Colorado Boulder
The Circular Economy is about zero waste, where products are disassembled into their constituent components, either to be recycled or composted. While considerable attention has focused on the product itself, a product c...
$49.00listed price -
8
Internet of Things Capstone V2: Build a Mobile Surveillance System
Offered by University of California San Diego
In the Capstone project for the Internet of Things specialization, you will design and build your own system that uses at least 2 sensors, at least 1 communication protocol and at least 1 actuator. You will have a chance...
$79.00listed price -
9
Operations Systems Excellence
Offered by University of London
The sole task of organisations is to either deliver customers the services that they require, or design, manufacture, and deliver products that customers are after. How do firms and organisations manage the very tasks th...
$49.00listed price -
10
Understanding the Healthcare Ecosystem
Offered by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Learners will obtain foundational knowledge and insights to begin to identify potential targets for innovation in healthcare. This course provides an overview of the healthcare ecosystem, which is comprised of diverse st...
$49.00listed price -
11
Network Systems: Principles in Practice
Offered by University of Colorado Boulder
This specialization covers the fundamentals of networking within modern computing infrastructure. IT infrastructure has shifted towards software-oriented networks and cloud-based services, changing the roles of engineers...
$49.00listed price -
12
Productivity and Systems Development
Offered by University of California, Irvine
This course provides hands-on experience with technology-based productivity tools, as well as foundational knowledge and understanding of system design and development. The course is designed to integrate concepts of har...
$49.00listed price -
13
Data, Security, and Privacy
Offered by University of California, Irvine
This course provides hands-on experience with technology-based productivity tools, as well as foundational knowledge and understanding of system design and development. The course is designed to integrate concepts of har...
$49.00listed price -
14
Basics of Air Conditioning & Heat Load Calculation
Offered by L&T EduTech
This comprehensive HVAC course begins by establishing a solid foundation in the core concepts of air conditioning and refrigeration. Students are introduced to the technologies that are fundamental to controlling and man...
$49.00listed price -
15
Vector Databases and Retrieval Data Engineering
Offered by IBM
This course teaches learners to design, operate, secure, and evaluate vector-based retrieval systems used in semantic search and RAG applications. Learners work with embeddings, vector schemas, index design, refresh stra...
$49.00listed price
Best System Design Courses on Coursera compared
| # | Course | Provider | Offered by | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exploring Renewable Energy Schemes | Coursera | University of Pennsylvania | $49.00 | View → |
| 2 | Programming for the Internet of Things Project | Coursera | University of California, Irvine | $69.00 | View → |
| 3 | Software Engineering | Coursera | The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | $49.00 | View → |
| 4 | Digital Manufacturing | Coursera | Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati | $49.00 | View → |
| 5 | Internet of Things and AI Cloud | Coursera | University of California San Diego | $49.00 | View → |
| 6 | Solar Energy for Engineers, Architects and Code Inspectors | Coursera | University at Buffalo | $49.00 | View → |
| 7 | Packaging Design for the Circular Economy | Coursera | Siemens & University of Colorado Boulder | $49.00 | View → |
| 8 | Internet of Things Capstone V2: Build a Mobile Surveillance System | Coursera | University of California San Diego | $79.00 | View → |
| 9 | Operations Systems Excellence | Coursera | University of London | $49.00 | View → |
| 10 | Understanding the Healthcare Ecosystem | Coursera | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | $49.00 | View → |
| 11 | Network Systems: Principles in Practice | Coursera | University of Colorado Boulder | $49.00 | View → |
| 12 | Productivity and Systems Development | Coursera | University of California, Irvine | $49.00 | View → |
| 13 | Data, Security, and Privacy | Coursera | University of California, Irvine | $49.00 | View → |
| 14 | Basics of Air Conditioning & Heat Load Calculation | Coursera | L&T EduTech | $49.00 | View → |
| 15 | Vector Databases and Retrieval Data Engineering | Coursera | IBM | $49.00 | View → |
Prices shown are the provider's listed price when we last updated this page. Confirm on their site before enrolling.
What the prices here tell you
The 15 priced courses on this page run from $49.00 to $79.00, with the middle of the range around $49.00 — a spread of $30.00. The options are closely priced, so cost is unlikely to be your deciding factor. A higher price on this page usually reflects who is behind the course rather than how much material it contains, so it is worth opening two or three at different price points and comparing their syllabus before deciding.
Who is behind these courses
These courses come from Coursera. Everything on this page is sold on the one platform, so the buying experience is the same whichever you pick. 10 of these are produced by a named university or institution, including University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Irvine and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology — which usually means a fixed syllabus and a recognised certificate, rather than an individual instructor’s own course.
Before you enrol
Open the provider’s own page and check three things this comparison cannot tell you: when the course was last updated, what the syllabus actually covers in its later sections, and what recent learners say. Prices shown here are the provider’s listed price when we last rebuilt this page on 30 August 2026 — they change often, and a promotion can move them substantially. We earn a commission if you enrol through our links, which costs you nothing and never affects the order courses appear in.