Architecture Basics
The vocabulary, the trade-offs, and the mental models you'll use everywhere else in the course.
Foundation Concepts
What is Architecture and System Design?
7 min →What architecture and system design actually mean for a SaaS platform — and why every system has them whether you planned for it or not.
Architectural Views
9 min →Software architecture is multi-dimensional. The 4+1 model, the C4 model, and quality views give you the lenses to describe a system without drowning in one diagram.
Core Principles
Decomposition and Boundaries
14 min →Coupling, cohesion, bounded contexts, and the forces that decide where to draw the lines in a multi-tenant SaaS system.
Trade-offs in Software Architecture
11 min →Every architectural decision is a trade-off. The named tensions, the failure modes, and how to make the choice consciously instead of accidentally.
Evolution and Change Management
13 min →Architectures that survive long enough to matter. Reversible vs. irreversible decisions, tech debt as a strategic concern, and shipping change without breaking everything.
Requirements Engineering
10 min →Functional, quality, and constraint requirements — and the techniques (Event Storming, QAW, SRE) that surface them before they hurt you.
Quality Attributes and Constraints
11 min →Performance, availability, scalability, security, reliability — naming the things you actually care about, plus the constraints that bound the design.
Communication Patterns
11 min →Sync, async, request/reply, pub/sub, streaming. Choosing the right shape for service-to-service traffic in a multi-tenant SaaS at scale.