Microservices Architecture

Builds applications as independent, loosely coupled services.

Components:

• Independent services with specific functionality.
• Services communicate over network (usually via HTTP APIs or message queues).

Structure:

graph LR
    C[Client] --> G[API Gateway]
    G --> S1[Microservice 1]
    G --> S2[Microservice 2]
    G --> SN[Microservice N]
    S1 --> D1[(DB 1)]
    S2 --> D2[(DB 2)]
    SN --> DN[(DB N)]

Example:

An e-commerce platform can be split into microservices:

• Product Service: Manages product catalog and search.
• Order Service: Handles carts, checkout, and order history.
• Payment Service: Processes payments and refunds.
• Notification Service: Sends emails, SMS messages, or push notifications.

Each service owns its own logic and can be deployed or scaled independently.

Pros:

• Independent scaling.
• Flexibility in choosing technology per service.

Cons:

• Higher complexity in orchestration.
• Challenges with data consistency and latency.

When to use:

• Large-scale distributed systems.
• Continuous deployment scenarios.

Service boundaries are the hard part. The most defensible way to draw them is along bounded contexts, not along technical layers or database tables.

Check Your Understanding

#

What is the strongest argument for a Microservice Architecture?

Services are independently deployable and scalable, each owning its own data

Correct. The price is real: network failure, distributed transactions, and operational complexity a monolith never has to pay.

It removes the need for integration testing

It guarantees strong consistency across the whole system

It reduces the total amount of infrastructure to run

Quiz Progress

• Answered: 0 / 0 (0%)
• Correct: 0 / 0 (0%) Reset