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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

993 questions.

  1. C4 Model intermediate

    A team produces detailed component diagrams for every service and they are all stale within a sprint. Which diagram levels are worth maintaining by hand?

    2 min answer postmanc4diagramsmaintenance
  2. C4 Model intermediate Multiple choice

    If you could maintain only one architecture diagram, which would it be and why?

    2 min answer c4context-diagramaltitudemaintenance
  3. Cache Invalidation intermediate

    A product catalogue is cached with a 10-minute TTL. Merchandisers complain that price changes take 10 minutes to appear. What do you propose?

    2 min answer cachinginvalidationdesign
  4. Caching for Performance intermediate

    A read-heavy content platform must scale. In what order should caching, replicas, denormalisation, CDN and query optimisation be applied, and what determines the order?

    2 min answer pratilipiread-heavycachingcdn
  5. Caching for Performance intermediate

    A service adds an in-process cache in front of its shared Redis tier to remove a 1 ms round trip. What has the team given up, and at what scale does that bill arrive?

    3 min answer caching-performancenear-cachestalenessinvalidation
  6. Capability Mapping intermediate

    A services marketplace maps its architecture by listing its microservices. Why is that not a capability map, and what does the difference change?

    2 min answer urban-companycapability-mapbusiness-architectureboundaries
  7. Capability Mapping intermediate

    An enterprise builds a capability map and it is never used again. What makes capability mapping produce decisions rather than documentation?

    2 min answer capability-mappingeadecisionsheatmaps
  8. Capability Mapping intermediate

    You have mapped capabilities and overlaid cost and differentiation. What decision does that enable?

    2 min answer capability-mapinvestmentbuild-vs-buydifferentiation
  9. Capability Maps in EA intermediate

    An enterprise capability map is complete and current, and no investment decision has been changed by it. What is missing?

    2 min answer capability-mapoverlaysdecisionsea
  10. Capability Maps in EA intermediate

    Review this. A capability map decomposed to four levels - 380 boxes - each carrying an owner name, a maturity score of 1 to 5, a red/amber/green status and links to supporting systems. It took 7 months and two contractors. In the year since publication it has been used once, to answer whether the two business units duplicate capabilities. What would you remove, what would you change, and what would you leave alone?

    3 min answer capability-maps-eadecompositionmaturity-modelsoverlays
  11. Capability Maps in EA intermediate

    You have a capability map and four possible overlays. Which do you use, and how do you choose?

    1 min answer enterprise-architecturecapabilitycommunication
  12. Capacity Modelling intermediate Multiple choice

    Alibaba reported a peak of 583,000 order creations per second during Singles' Day in 2020. Suppose one promoted item accounts for 0.5% of those orders and its stock is held in a single row. Roughly how many updates per second does that row have to absorb?

    2 min answer alibabaflash salehot keywrite contention