In today's fast-paced digital world, maintaining system reliability is crucial for business continuity and customer satisfaction. This course introduces the core principles of Service Level Indicators (SLIs) and Service Level Objectives (SLOs), equipping you with the knowledge and strategies to measure, manage, and optimize reliability in complex systems.

SLIs and SLOs Demystified

Recommended experience
What you'll learn
Formulate and implement SLIs and SLOs for system reliability
Manage incidents using observability and monitoring techniques
Align reliability objectives with business and technical goals
Details to know

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February 2026
14 assignments
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There are 14 modules in this course
In this section, we link reliability pillars, roles, and observability practices to mapping precise SLIs into achievable SLOs, and weigh operational and business risks arising from misaligned indicators.
What's included
2 videos5 readings1 assignment
In this section, we build a dedicated SLI/SLO team, detail SRE, owner and stakeholder roles, and discuss adapting structures to organizational culture to strengthen reliability, availability and business alignment.
What's included
1 video6 readings1 assignment
In this section, we connect customer-centric SLIs and SLOs to each stage of the user journey, mapping KPIs, setting data-driven performance thresholds, and analyzing trends to prioritize reliability improvements.
What's included
1 video5 readings1 assignment
In this section, we establish core observability via metrics, logs, events, and traces, link these insights to SLIs and SLOs, and practice data-driven reliability decisions.
What's included
1 video4 readings1 assignment
In this section, we link SLIs, SLOs and error budgets to real monetary outcomes, quantifying downtime costs, proving SRE ROI, and framing reliability discussions in clear financial language.
What's included
1 video3 readings1 assignment
In this section, we learn to craft service level indicators, set service level objectives, and honor service level agreements by tracing customer journeys and defining precise technical boundaries.
What's included
1 video5 readings1 assignment
In this section, we map user journeys to precise SLIs, define SLOs for availability, latency, and error budgets, and prioritize indicators through personas, system boundaries, and architectural touchpoints.
What's included
1 video4 readings1 assignment
In this section, we design SLIs and SLOs for distributed multi-tier architectures, compare cloud versus on-premises impacts, map system boundaries, and prioritize reliability metrics using persona journeys.
What's included
1 video5 readings1 assignment
In this section, we Design database-centric Service Level Indicators and Objectives by linking architecture, persona journeys and boundaries to metrics that support performance, availability, integrity and recovery goals.
What's included
1 video6 readings1 assignment
In this section, we map new feature workflows to SLIs and SLOs-cache hit ratio, redirect latency, error rate-ranked by business impact through persona-driven analysis.
What's included
7 readings1 assignment
In this section, we Configure Service Level Objective alerts, monitor via Service Level Indicators, and interpret error budgets to balance rapid incident detection with sustainable on call cadence.
What's included
1 video6 readings1 assignment
In this section, we build real-time SLI dashboards and conduct cross-functional iterative SLO reviews, using AI-driven anomaly detection to adjust reliability targets and maintain metrics aligned with changing business needs.
What's included
1 video4 readings1 assignment
In this section, we explore incident management that maps Service Level Indicators, including Mean Time to Detection and Time to Acknowledge, to Service Level Objectives and sharper on call workflows.
What's included
1 video5 readings1 assignment
In this section, we package SLIs and SLOs as a service, map a full product lifecycle, and tie reliability metrics to KPIs, OKRs, and SLAs for practical, customer-aligned engineering.
What's included
1 video3 readings1 assignment
Instructor

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Felipe M.

Jennifer J.

Larry W.

Chaitanya A.

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Frequently asked questions
Yes, you can preview the first video and view the syllabus before you enroll. You must purchase the course to access content not included in the preview.
If you decide to enroll in the course before the session start date, you will have access to all of the lecture videos and readings for the course. You’ll be able to submit assignments once the session starts.
Once you enroll and your session begins, you will have access to all videos and other resources, including reading items and the course discussion forum. You’ll be able to view and submit practice assessments, and complete required graded assignments to earn a grade and a Course Certificate.
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Financial aid available,

