Roadmap
Software Architect
The big decisions: architecture style, scaling, quality and cost.
Must know You will not get hired without it.Good to know An extra plus.Specialist Only for special roles.
1
The shape of the system
How to split a system, and why.
Must knowArchitecture stylesMonolith, modular monolith, microservices, event-drivenReadyMust knowDomain-Driven DesignShared language, Bounded Context, AggregateReadyMust knowClean ArchitectureOnion layers and the direction of dependenciesReadyMust knowMicroservicesService boundaries, data per service, costsReadyGood to knowVertical SliceOrganizing code by featureReadyMust knowArchitecture Decision RecordsWriting down architecture decisions and their reasonsReady
2
Data and consistency
Data across services, and the cost of each choice.
Must knowConsistency and CAPEventual consistency and hard choicesReadyMust knowThe Saga patternTransactions across services with compensationReadyMust knowOutbox and InboxSending messages safely together with database changesReadyMust knowIdempotencyOne request, any number of times, one resultReadyGood to knowEvent SourcingStoring events instead of the final stateReadyMust knowCaching patternsCache-aside, cache invalidation, stampedeReady
3
Scale and reliability
A system that grows and survives failures.
Must knowSystem designHorizontal scaling, load balancing, sharding, replicasReadyMust knowResilience with PollyRetry, circuit breaker, timeout and retry stormsReadyGood to knowKafkaTopics, partitions, consumer groups and message orderReadyMust knowDistributed tracingOpenTelemetry, traces and spans across servicesReadyGood to knowKubernetesPods, deployments, HPA and graceful shutdownReadyMust knowSecurityOWASP Top 10, secret management, encryptionReady
4
Working with teams
Architecture is not only diagrams; it is decisions and communication too.