You're starting a career in System Architecture. What design patterns should you learn first?

1 Layered pattern

The layered pattern is one of the most widely used and fundamental design patterns in system architecture. It divides a system into separate layers that have different responsibilities and communicate with each other through well-defined interfaces. For example, a typical web application may have a presentation layer, a business layer, a data access layer, and a database layer. The layered pattern simplifies the development, testing, and maintenance of each layer, and allows for reuse, scalability, and security.

2 Client-server pattern

The client-server pattern is another common and basic design pattern in system architecture. It involves two types of components: clients and servers. Clients are the ones that request services or resources from the servers, while servers are the ones that provide services or resources to the clients. For example, a web browser is a client that requests web pages from a web server, while a web server is a server that responds to web requests from web browsers. The client-server pattern enables distributed computing, load balancing, and fault tolerance.

3 Microservices pattern

The microservices pattern is a modern and popular design pattern in system architecture. It breaks down a system into small, independent, and loosely coupled services that each perform a specific function and communicate with each other through lightweight protocols. For example, an e-commerce system may have microservices for product catalog, shopping cart, payment, order, and inventory. The microservices pattern improves agility, scalability, and reliability, and allows for continuous delivery and deployment.

5 MVC pattern

The MVC pattern is a design pattern in system architecture that applies to the presentation layer of a system. MVC stands for Model-View-Controller, and it separates the data, the user interface, and the logic of a system. For example, in a web application, the model is the data that is stored and manipulated by the system, the view is the HTML or CSS that displays the data to the user, and the controller is the code that handles the user input and updates the model and the view. The MVC pattern enhances modularity, testability, and reusability of the presentation layer.

6 Repository pattern

The repository pattern is a design pattern in system architecture that applies to the data access layer of a system. It abstracts the data source from the business layer, and provides a consistent and centralized way of accessing and manipulating the data. For example, a repository may hide the details of how the data is stored in a database, a file, or a web service, and expose only the methods and properties that are relevant to the business layer. The repository pattern reduces complexity, improves performance, and facilitates testing and mocking of the data access layer.