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 Performance & Capacity.

Quiz

A service handles 100 requests per second with a pool of 10 worker threads. The team raises the pool to 100 threads. Throughput stays at roughly 100 rps and p99 latency gets much worse. What is the primary reason?

Why does putting a connection pool in front of a database make a service faster when the database does exactly the same query work either way?

A team is asked to "make the system faster" for a delivery platform. What are they actually being asked, and why does the distinction change the work?

Why does making every request 30% faster often leave requests per second exactly where they were, and what did the optimisation actually buy?