Monolith vs Microservices — A Trade-off Every Engineer Should Master
When should you choose a monolithic architecture over microservices?
Ep #17: Breaking the complex System Design Components
System Design Trade-Off # 1
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From the System Design Trade-off Series
“You don’t need microservices. You need modular thinking.”
Most engineers know the buzzwords. Fewer understand the trade-offs. And even fewer can confidently defend those choices in an interview or a real-world architecture review.
This series is designed to change that.
Today, we’re unpacking one of the most common and most misunderstood decisions in system design:
👉 When should you choose a monolithic architecture over microservices?
The Answer
A monolith bundles all application logic into a single deployable unit. This simplifies local development, deployment, and testing.
Microservices break the application into independently deployable services, each responsible for a specific domain.
What You’ll Learn Inside This Premium Post:
✅ A clear breakdown of the pros and cons
✅ A real-world case study from Shopify’s billion-dollar monolith
✅ A visual architecture diagram comparing both models
✅ A “questions to ask” checklist before making the call
✅ Common pitfalls engineers make when migrating
✅ Related trade-offs to explore (synchronous vs async, deployment complexity, etc.)
🔐 This post is part of a premium series designed to sharpen your system design thinking.
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See you inside the full breakdown!
Amit Raghuvanshi
Author, The Architect’s Notebook