Architecture Patterns
Overview

Architecture Patterns

How you organize your system determines how it scales, how it fails, and how your team works.

The big architectural decisions. Monolith vs microservices isn't a binary choice — it's a spectrum, and understanding where you are on that spectrum is what matters.


Topics

ChapterWhat It Covers
Monolithic ArchitectureSingle deployable unit, modular monolith
MicroservicesService decomposition, bounded context, service mesh
ServerlessFaaS, BaaS, cold starts, durable functions
Event-DrivenChoreography vs orchestration, saga, data consistency
Domain-Driven DesignBounded context, aggregates, entities, domain events
Twelve-Factor AppThe methodology for building modern SaaS

The Decision Framework

Ask yourself:

  1. Team size — can your team own separate services?
  2. Domain complexity — is the business logic separable?
  3. Scale requirements — do different parts need different scaling?
  4. Operational maturity — can you run distributed systems?

Start monolith. Split when the pain of staying together exceeds the pain of splitting.