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Quiz

2707 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 areas2707 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 Architecture96 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 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

6 questions in Systems Thinking.

  1. Systems Thinking advanced

    A change fixes the problem it targeted and makes the overall situation worse. What second-order effects should an architect learn to anticipate?

    2 min answer systems-thinkingsecond-orderincentivesfeedback
  2. Systems Thinking advanced

    An organisation finds most incidents are caused not by individual service failures but by interactions between healthy services. What discipline addresses this, and what specifically should be done?

    2 min answer delhiverysystems-thinkingemergentdependencies
  3. Systems Thinking advanced

    An organisation finds most incidents are caused not by individual service failures but by unexpected interactions between healthy services. What does systems thinking add here?

    2 min answer systems-thinkingemergencefeedback-loopsdependencies
  4. Systems Thinking intermediate

    In April 2022 an Atlassian maintenance script deleted 883 sites belonging to 775 customers in 23 minutes. The script had passed peer review - the review checked which endpoint was called and how, not whether the supplied identifiers referred to an app or to a whole site. What happens if you respond by requiring a second reviewer?

    2 min answer atlassiancode-reviewblast-radiussecond-order-effects
  5. Systems Thinking advanced

    The same class of incident has recurred four times in a year despite each postmortem producing actions that were completed. What is going wrong?

    1 min answer meta-skillssystems-thinkingincidentsroot-cause
  6. Systems Thinking advanced

    You add an approval gate to reduce production defects. Six months later defect rates are higher. Explain.

    2 min answer systems-thinkingfeedbackgovernance