HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from 01 - Course Introduction & Relational Model (CMU Databases Systems / Fall 2019) Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

01 - Course Introduction & Relational Model (CMU Databases Systems / Fall 2019)

CMU Database Group
Lectures
YouTube
6 HN users recommended this lecture6 months2020–2023 score 8
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Frequently recommended as the best free university course on database internals, praised for depth and Pavlo's presentation.

The first lecture of Andy Pavlo's CMU 15-445 Intro to Database Systems (Fall 2019), covering course introduction and the relational model.

“Highly recommended both for the depth and how Andy Pavlo presents the topic.” (HN, 2020)

4 strong recommendations · 3 recommendations · Lectures · intro

7 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@ptr Jan 2020 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: What Technologies to Learn in 2020?
I'd start with CMU's "Intro to Database Systems", their lectures are on youtube. Highly recommended both for the depth and how Andy Pavlo presents the topic. [this video]
CMU intro to database systems lectures with depth and great presentation
@alistairw Apr 2021 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Foundations of Databases (1995)
Agreed. I finished watching them at the start of this year and it's significantly helped me in using and making choices about databases. I've also since started implementing my own database for learning off the back of them. Couldn't be more grateful for those courses being public. link if anyone is interested: [this video]
Helped database choices and inspired building own database
@maxmcd Mar 2022 Strongly recommends
on HN thread How does database indexing work? (2008)
Obligatory recommendation for the CMU Databases Systems lecture series by Andy Pavlo. [this video] Here's the lecture on tree indexes: [link]
CMU database lecture series by Andy Pavlo
@runlaszlorun Apr 2023 Strongly recommends
on HN thread The Part of PostgreSQL We Hate the Most (Multi-Version Concurrency Control)
[this video] There are multiple years available for his first DB class but that’s the one I watched. I almost called it his ‘basic’ class but there’s literally only like one or two classes on SQL before he dives into all the various layers of the internals. There’s also a few of his advanced courses. And then you’ll see guest lectures from industry on about every one of the new DB platforms you can think of. They’re all under “CMU Database Group” on Youtube. Highly recommend.
Intro class diving into database internals, with advanced courses and guest lectures
@avinassh Apr 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: What's the best textbook or video lectures on a topic you've come seen?
Intro to Database Systems by Andy Pavlo - [this video] MIT 6.824 Distributed Systems by Robert Morris - [link] Designing Data-Intensive Applications (DDIA) - [link] Crafting Interpreters - [link] > What made it so special these break down really complex topics and make the concepts approachable. As a noob, I learned a lot from these.
Breaks down complex topics approachably for newcomers

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close