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System Design Basics for Backend Developers · Lesson

Decomposing Monoliths

Learn strategies and patterns for breaking down monolithic applications into smaller, independent microservices.

What's a Monolith?

A monolithic application is built as a single, indivisible unit. All components like the user interface, business logic, and data access are tightly coupled within one large codebase.

While simple to start with, monoliths can become very complex and difficult to manage as they grow larger.

Why Decompose a Monolith?

As monolithic applications grow, they often face significant challenges:

  • Slow Development: Large codebases make changes riskier and slow down development cycles.
  • Scaling Issues: You can only scale the entire application, even if only one small part needs more resources.
  • Technology Lock-in: It's hard to introduce new technologies without rewriting the whole app.
  • Deployment Risk: A small change requires redeploying the entire application, increasing risk.

All lessons in this course

  1. Decomposing Monoliths
  2. Service Discovery & Registry
  3. Inter-Service Communication Patterns
  4. The Saga Pattern for Distributed Transactions
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