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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

30 questions in Data Architecture.

  1. Query Optimisation intermediate Multiple choice

    An endpoint's p99 is 4 seconds. The database's slow query log is empty and CPU is low. What is happening?

    2 min answer n-plus-oneperformancedebugginggithub
  2. Relational Modelling intermediate

    A team proposes storing the customer's address on every order row "so order history is accurate". Is that denormalisation or a modelling error?

    2 min answer normalisationmodellinghistorytemporal
  3. Relational Modelling intermediate

    A team wants to store a product's variable attributes as a JSON column rather than modelling them as tables. When is that right and what is given up?

    2 min answer relationaljsonschemamodelling
  4. Replication intermediate

    A marketplace seller edits a listing and is immediately shown the old version, because the read went to a replica. What are the options, and how should the choice be made?

    2 min answer replicationread-your-writesconsistencyebay
  5. Replication intermediate

    An analytics platform's database is write-bound rather than read-bound. The team adds read replicas and nothing improves. Why, and what should be done instead?

    2 min answer posthogwrite-boundreplicasingestion
  6. Replication intermediate

    Users report their own profile edits sometimes vanish immediately after saving. Replication lag averages 300 ms. Explain and give three fixes of increasing cost.

    2 min answer replicationlagread-your-writesconsistency