Lesson 1
Architecture = Decisions, Not Diagrams
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Treat architecture as a series of reversible and irreversible decisions, not a one-time blueprint
reading|45 min
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A practical, decision-first architecture course focused on decision drivers, tradeoffs, and the patterns behind scalable, reliable, secure systems.
This course is a practical, decision-first guide to software architecture for real systems. You will learn how experienced engineers choose tradeoffs under constraints, not just memorize patterns in isolation.
You will work through the decisions behind quality attributes, boundaries, data architecture, communication models, and operational concerns so your architecture choices stay grounded in outcomes.
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12 free preview lessons
Lesson 1
Treat architecture as a series of reversible and irreversible decisions, not a one-time blueprint
Lesson 2
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By the end of this course, you'll have a personal architecture decision framework you can use from early design to production governance. You will stop defaulting to trends and start making defensible decisions.
Lesson 1: Architecture = Decisions, Not Diagrams
Lesson 2: Quality Attributes: The Real Decision Drivers
Lesson 3: Boundaries, Cohesion, and the Modular Monolith
Lesson 4: Data Architecture Decisions
Lesson 5: Communication Patterns: Sync, Async, and Events
Lesson 6: Scalability Decisions: Scale Up, Out, or Down
Lesson 7: Reliability & Resilience Patterns
Lesson 8: Security & Compliance as Architecture
Lesson 9: Observability & Operability
Lesson 10: Performance & Latency Decision Patterns
Lesson 11: Evolving Architecture: Refactor, Strangle, Replace
Lesson 12: Decision Governance & Your Architecture Framework
Each lesson includes knowledge checks, recall cards, exercises, and scenarios.
Performance, reliability, security, and cost are the forces that shape every architecture
Lesson 3
Create boundaries that make change cheap: high cohesion inside, low coupling outside
Lesson 4
Schemas, consistency, and migrations — the choices that are hardest to undo
Lesson 5
Choose how services talk based on latency, coupling, and failure modes
Lesson 6
Decide when to optimize, what to cache, and how to scale without over-engineering
Lesson 7
Design for failure with retries, timeouts, circuit breakers, and bulkheads
Lesson 8
Threat modeling, data classification, and least privilege shape system design
Lesson 9
Design systems you can debug, monitor, and run without heroics
Lesson 10
Optimize the right things: critical paths, p95 latency, and user perception
Lesson 11
Choose the right change strategy without blowing up delivery
Lesson 12
Tie it together with decision records, team alignment, and a repeatable process