Deliverables

The curriculum covers what an architect should know. This covers what an architect actually hands over: 55 artifacts, each with a worked example, a note on when it is worth producing, who reads it, and the ways it usually goes wrong. Filter by the artifact's type, the kind of engagement that calls for it, the stack or industry it is drawn against, or the audience it is written for.

Identify the deliverable → 42 diagrams, shown one at a time with the answer withheld. Nothing to submit.

3 of 55 deliverables shown.

flowchart LR
  commit(["commit to main"]) --> build

  subgraph ci["Continuous Integration"]
    direction TB
    build["build<br/><i>pinned deps, hermetic</i>"]
    unit["unit tests<br/><i>&lt; 4 min</i>"]
    scan["SAST + dependency<br/>+ secret scan"]
    sign["sign artifact<br/>+ emit SBOM"]
    build --> unit --> scan --> sign
  end

  sign --> reg[("artifact registry<br/><i>immutable, digest-addressed</i>")]

  subgraph cd["Continuous Delivery"]
    direction TB
    dev["deploy dev<br/><i>auto</i>"]
    ctest["contract tests"]
    stage["deploy staging<br/><i>auto</i>"]
    nft["performance +<br/>resilience suite"]
    dev --> ctest --> stage --> nft
  end

  reg --> dev
  nft --> gate{"release gate<br/><i>automated checks +<br/>change record</i>"}
  gate -->|"pass"| canary["canary 5%<br/><i>15 min bake</i>"]
  gate -->|"fail"| stop(["blocked"])
  canary --> analyse{"error rate and<br/>latency within SLO?"}
  analyse -->|"yes"| full["progressive rollout<br/><i>25% → 50% → 100%</i>"]
  analyse -->|"no"| rollback(["automatic rollback"])

Behavioural View

CI/CD Pipeline Diagram

The path from commit to production as ordered stages, showing what each one proves, what it produces, and where a human is still in the loop.

Pipeline Architecture Build

flowchart TB
  subgraph prod["Cluster: prod-eu (regional, 3 AZ)"]
    direction TB
    cp["Control plane<br/><i>managed · private endpoint</i>"]
    subgraph pools["Node pools"]
      direction LR
      np1["system<br/><i>taint: CriticalAddonsOnly</i>"]
      np2["general<br/><i>3–30 nodes · spot 40%</i>"]
      np3["memory<br/><i>taint: workload=memory</i>"]
      np4["gpu<br/><i>taint: workload=gpu</i>"]
    end
    subgraph ns["Namespaces"]
      direction LR
      n1["team-orders<br/><i>quota · NetworkPolicy<br/>default-deny</i>"]
      n2["team-pricing<br/><i>quota · NetworkPolicy</i>"]
      n3["platform<br/><i>mesh · ingress · logging</i>"]
    end
    cp --- pools
    pools --- ns
  end
  subgraph nonprod["Cluster: nonprod-eu"]
    direction TB
    x1["shared node pool<br/><i>spot 90%</i>"]
  end
  reg[("Image registry<br/><i>signed images only</i>")] --> prod
  reg --> nonprod
  gitops["GitOps reconciler"] -.->|"applies desired state"| prod

Deployment & Infrastructure View

Kubernetes Cluster Topology

How many clusters, split by what, which node pools exist and what isolates one tenant from another.

Cluster Architecture Design

flowchart TB
  hsm[("HSM / Key Service<br/><i>root of trust · FIPS 140-2 L3</i>")]
  cmk["Customer Master Key<br/><i>per environment · rotate 1y</i>"]
  dek["Data Encryption Keys<br/><i>per dataset · rotate 90d</i>"]

  hsm --> cmk -->|"wraps"| dek

  subgraph vault["Secret Store"]
    direction TB
    v1["Static secrets<br/><i>rotate 90d</i>"]
    v2["Dynamic credentials<br/><i>DB · TTL 1h</i>"]
    v3["PKI issuer<br/><i>mTLS certs · TTL 24h</i>"]
  end
  cmk -->|"encrypts vault at rest"| vault

  subgraph wl["Workloads"]
    direction TB
    w1["Service A<br/><i>workload identity</i>"]
    w2["Pipeline<br/><i>OIDC federation</i>"]
  end

  w1 -->|"attests identity — no stored secret"| vault
  w2 -->|"short-lived token — no stored secret"| vault
  vault -->|"lease · auto-renew · revocable"| w1
  dek -->|"envelope decrypt"| w1
  audit[("Audit log<br/><i>every issue and revoke</i>")]
  vault --> audit

Security View

Key & Secret Management Diagram

Where keys and secrets live, what wraps what, how workloads get them without a stored credential, and how rotation actually happens.

Secrets Management Design