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 Distributed Locking.

Quiz

A media platform uses a distributed lock to stop two workers rendering the same expensive export. Workers sometimes crash while holding the lock, and occasionally two workers process the same job anyway. Diagnose both problems and redesign.

A team proposes a distributed lock to stop two workers processing the same transaction. Workers sometimes crash or pause while holding the lock. What is the safer design, and when is a lock genuinely necessary?

A team uses a distributed lock in a key-value store to ensure only one worker processes a job. Occasionally two workers process the same job. Explain.

Three designs need distributed locks: a nightly report, a per-customer state machine, and a global config reload. For each, is a lock the right answer?