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2667 questions of the kind that actually get asked — in interviews, in architecture review boards, and by the person who has to run the thing at 3 AM. Every answer states the trade-off rather than the slogan, and says when the obvious choice is the wrong one.

All areas2667 Architecture Fundamentals81 Distributed Systems101 Data Architecture90 Cloud Architecture87 Networking86 API & Integration Architecture78 Reliability & Resilience88 Observability81 Performance & Capacity Engineering90 Security Architecture95 Cost Architecture & FinOps92 Business Architecture93 Architecture Communication91 Enterprise Architecture91 Legacy Modernization92 AI-Era Architecture86 Software Architecture & Engineering84 Architecture Patterns84 Architecture Decision-Making91 The Architect's Meta-Skills92 Delivery & Release Engineering93 Platform Engineering & Developer Experience92 Testing & Quality Architecture90 Data Platform Architecture88 Streaming & Real-Time Data93 Data Governance & Semantics81 Frontend & Experience Architecture91 Edge, Mobile & IoT88 Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture90 Assurance, Audit & Model Risk88
Difficulty Any beginner intermediate advanced

56 questions in Architecture Patterns.

  1. Sharding Patterns advanced

    A multi-tenant database is being sharded. One tenant holds 40% of the data and generates 60% of the queries. What is your shard key and what do you do about that tenant?

    3 min answer shardinghot-keymulti-tenancypinterest
  2. Sharding Patterns advanced Multiple choice

    A product must shard its primary data store. Which sharding pattern fits, and which decision is irreversible?

    2 min answer shardingroutingrebalancingshard-key
  3. Sharding Patterns advanced

    Notion sharded its Postgres estate into 480 logical shards in 2021 and in 2023 moved those shards onto a larger number of physical machines. A team that shards into 32 databases and later needs 96 faces a far harder job. What did the 2021 decision buy and what does it cost to maintain?

    3 min answer notionshardingreshardingpostgres
  4. Sidecar & Ambassador advanced

    A platform moves cross-cutting concerns into a sidecar process alongside every service. What does this solve, and what new problems appear?

    2 min answer sidecarcross-cuttingpolyglotoverhead
  5. Strangler Fig advanced

    A 15-year-old monolith must be modernised without a rewrite and without a feature freeze. Plan the migration.

    2 min answer stranglerlegacymigrationdata
  6. Strangler Fig advanced

    A 20-year-old order management system must be replaced. It cannot be paused and its business rules are undocumented. What is your approach and what is the hardest part?

    3 min answer strangler-figlegacymigrationdata
  7. Strangler Fig advanced Multiple choice

    A 2004-era order management system runs on an Oracle database where roughly 40 PL/SQL triggers and packages hold business rules that exist nowhere else. A facade is in place and three read-only capabilities already route to the new service. The team must now move its first write. Which rule should decide which write goes first?

    3 min answer strangler figoracletriggerscutover
  8. Strangler Fig advanced

    What distinguishes a strangler migration that completes from one that becomes permanent coexistence?

    2 min answer strangler-figdecommissioningsponsorshipcoexistence