/architecture

Architecture Examples

Real-world architecture decisions by project type.

Example 1: MVP E-commerce (Solo Developer)

Requirements:
  - <1000 users initially
  - Solo developer
  - Fast to market (8 weeks)
  - Budget-conscious

Architecture Decisions:
  App Structure: Monolith (simpler for solo)
  Framework: Next.js (full-stack, fast)
  Data Layer: Prisma direct (no over-abstraction)
  Authentication: JWT (simpler than OAuth)
  Payment: Stripe (hosted solution)
  Database: PostgreSQL (ACID for orders)

Trade-offs Accepted:
  - Monolith → Can't scale independently (team doesn't justify it)
  - No Repository → Less testable (simple CRUD doesn't need it)
  - JWT → No social login initially (can add later)

Future Migration Path:
  - Users > 10K → Extract payment service
  - Team > 3 → Add Repository pattern
  - Social login requested → Add OAuth

Example 2: SaaS Product (5-10 Developers)

Requirements:
  - 1K-100K users
  - 5-10 developers
  - Long-term (12+ months)
  - Multiple domains (billing, users, core)

Architecture Decisions:
  App Structure: Modular Monolith (team size optimal)
  Framework: NestJS (modular by design)
  Data Layer: Repository pattern (testing, flexibility)
  Domain Model: Partial DDD (rich entities)
  Authentication: OAuth + JWT
  Caching: Redis
  Database: PostgreSQL

Trade-offs Accepted:
  - Modular Monolith → Some module coupling (microservices not justified)
  - Partial DDD → No full aggregates (no domain experts)
  - RabbitMQ later → Initial synchronous (add when proven needed)

Migration Path:
  - Team > 10 → Consider microservices
  - Domains conflict → Extract bounded contexts
  - Read performance issues → Add CQRS

Example 3: Enterprise (100K+ Users)

Requirements:
  - 100K+ users
  - 10+ developers
  - Multiple business domains
  - Different scaling needs
  - 24/7 availability

Architecture Decisions:
  App Structure: Microservices (independent scale)
  API Gateway: Kong/AWS API GW
  Domain Model: Full DDD
  Consistency: Event-driven (eventual OK)
  Message Bus: Kafka
  Authentication: OAuth + SAML (enterprise SSO)
  Database: Polyglot (right tool per job)
  CQRS: Selected services

Operational Requirements:
  - Service mesh (Istio/Linkerd)
  - Distributed tracing (Jaeger/Tempo)
  - Centralized logging (ELK/Loki)
  - Circuit breakers (Resilience4j)
  - Kubernetes/Helm