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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

42 questions in Architecture Decision-Making.

  1. Architecture Decision Records intermediate Multiple choice

    A 60-engineer platform organisation of nine teams is introducing decision records and leadership asks what a healthy annual volume looks like so they can tell whether the practice is working. Roughly how many records should they expect per year?

    2 min answer adrdecision-recordsestimationgovernance
  2. Architecture Decision Records intermediate

    A team writes decision records diligently and nobody reads them. What is wrong with the practice rather than the format?

    2 min answer adrdiscoverabilityrationalepractice
  3. Architecture Decision Records intermediate

    An interviewer asks you to pick an architectural decision your team made in the last year and write its decision record on the whiteboard, then hands you a fact partway through that would have changed the choice. What is being assessed, and how should you work through it?

    3 min answer adrdecision-recordsinterviewcontext
  4. Architecture Decision Records intermediate

    Review this decision log. It holds 140 records over four years in the repository. 31 are marked superseded and 9 of those name no successor. Two records state conflicting positions on the same message bus and both read "accepted". The template has a Consequences heading that is empty in 96 records. A new engineer asked what the current position on async messaging is and spent half a day finding out. What would you change, what would you remove, and what would you leave alone?

    3 min answer adrsupersessiondecision-lognavigability
  5. Architecture Decision Records intermediate

    Your team writes ADRs and nobody reads them. What is wrong with them?

    2 min answer documentationdecisionspractice
  6. Build vs Buy intermediate Multiple choice

    A platform must decide whether to build or buy a capability. What is the primary test, and what is the pattern that usually works?

    2 min answer build-vs-buydifferentiationceilingdata
  7. Build vs Buy intermediate

    A team proposes building an authentication service rather than buying one, arguing it is two weeks of work. Respond.

    2 min answer decisioncostsecurity
  8. Centralised vs Distributed intermediate

    When is a centralised architecture with a single relational database and vertically scaled application the right answer?

    2 min answer centralisedsimplicityscaleevidence
  9. Architecture Decision-Making intermediate

    Security wants mandatory hardware keys for every login; the business says it will cost conversions. How do you resolve it architecturally rather than by picking a side?

    2 min answer securityusabilityriskauthentication
  10. Architecture Decision-Making intermediate

    The team can ship in six weeks with an approach that will need rework, or five months with one that will not. How do you decide, and what do you do either way?

    2 min answer technical-debtdeliverytrade-offssequencing
  11. Architecture Decision-Making intermediate Multiple choice

    When should a service call another synchronously, and when should it publish an event instead? Give me the deciding test, not a preference.

    2 min answer syncasynccouplingavailability
  12. Architecture Decision-Making intermediate

    You are reviewing a design for an internal tool with 200 users. It proposes Kubernetes, microservices, Kafka, a service mesh and CQRS. How do you handle the review?

    2 min answer over-engineeringreviewpragmatismgovernance