Quiz

2627 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 areas2627 Architecture Fundamentals81 Distributed Systems101 Data Architecture90 Cloud Architecture77 Networking86 API & Integration Architecture78 Reliability & Resilience88 Observability81 Performance & Capacity Engineering90 Security Architecture85 Cost Architecture & FinOps82 Business Architecture93 Architecture Communication91 Enterprise Architecture91 Legacy Modernization82 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

4 questions in Architecture Decision-Making.

Quiz

A four-person startup needs SMS phone verification at signup - roughly 20000 messages a month to US numbers. One engineer proposes sending directly through a carrier gateway rather than paying a provider such as Twilio. Which fact should decide it?

When is an architectural decision worth an ADR, and what makes an ADR useful two years later?

A team has three weeks to launch and has agreed that exactly one corner will be cut. Four candidates are on the table. Which shortcut is the safe one to take?

A team moves a slow 800 ms enrichment call out of the request path onto a queue. Request p99 drops immediately, total system throughput does not improve, and the time until the user sees the enriched result gets worse. Why does the queue not reduce the work?