Portfolio ↗

Quiz

2741 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 areas2741 Architecture Fundamentals81 Distributed Systems101 Data Architecture90 Cloud Architecture87 Networking86 API & Integration Architecture78 Reliability & Resilience99 Observability92 Performance & Capacity Engineering90 Security Architecture95 Cost Architecture & FinOps92 Business Architecture93 Architecture Communication91 Enterprise Architecture91 Legacy Modernization92 AI-Era Architecture96 Software Architecture & Engineering84 Architecture Patterns84 Architecture Decision-Making91 The Architect's Meta-Skills92 Delivery & Release Engineering93 Platform Engineering & Developer Experience92 Testing & Quality Architecture102 Data Platform Architecture98 Streaming & Real-Time Data93 Data Governance & Semantics91 Frontend & Experience Architecture91 Edge, Mobile & IoT88 Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture90 Assurance, Audit & Model Risk98
Difficulty Any beginner intermediate advanced

2741 questions.

  1. CAP & PACELC advanced

    You run active-active across two regions. The link between them fails. What should each region do, and what would you have designed differently?

    2 min answer partitionquorummulti-regionavailability
  2. Capability Mapping advanced Multiple choice

    A capability map published nine months ago is quoted in every strategy deck. Each level-3 capability lists between four and eleven supporting systems and no system supports only one capability. The last two quarters of funding decisions contradict the map's own priorities. The two capabilities the strategy calls differentiating are both rated mature. What is the diagnosis?

    3 min answer capability mappingdiagnosisinvestmentartefacts
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. Capability Mapping advanced

    Salesforce's 2009 SIGMOD paper describes serving many tenants from shared tables with a metadata layer, rather than giving each customer their own schema. Which business-model decision forced that, and what did it cost them?

    3 min answer salesforcemulti-tenancymetadatabusiness model
  6. Capability Mapping intermediate

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

    2 min answer capability-mapinvestmentbuild-vs-buydifferentiation
  7. Capability Maps in EA advanced

    A CFO points at the portfolio and asks why two business units need two CRM systems costing £1.4M a year between them, and asks you to consolidate. Walk me through how you would answer.

    3 min answer capability-maprationalisationportfoliostakeholders
  8. Capability Maps in EA advanced

    A CIO asks for a capability map of the enterprise. How do you scope it so it is actually used?

    2 min answer eabusiness-architecturepragmatism
  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 advanced

    A compute platform must plan accelerator capacity where lead times are months, demand is uncertain, and jobs vary from minutes to weeks. How should the capacity model be built?

    2 min answer capacity-modellinglead-timeuncertaintyscheduling