Schedule

Introduction to course structure, the fundamentals of large software systems, and how to effectively contribute to large software systems.

Understanding the architecture of large codebases and recognizing real-life applications of design patterns in a large codebase.

What does it mean for a system to be performant? What are the operational requirements that we need to consider when designing a software system?

Considerations to ensure the code quality of the system to enable it to be operated and maintained in quality.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Visualizations are one of the most powerful tools in an architect's belt. This lecture discusses how diagramming and whiteboarding can be used to augment the communication that ensures software projects succeed.

The lecture covers forming an architecture for large software systems, discussing application architecture patterns, the transition from monoliths, and service-oriented architecture. It highlights maintainability, testability, layered architecture styles like MVC, and the microkernel architecture style. The lecture also examines trade-offs in distributed architectures, including latency and network reliability.

This lecture covers various distributed architectures, including pipeline, broker, and mediator topologies, and their application in report generation and AI. It also differentiates between operational and analytical data, discussing data warehousing, data lakes, and data mesh approaches.

Lectures by industry professionals

Guest Lecture by Porom Kamal, Software Developer at Doordash; Evaluating the architecture risks and important things to look out for.

Architecture is about communication and decision making. This lecture covers case studies on how architects might mitigate architecture risks and augment their designs based on real-life scenarios.

In this lecture, we will go through various interesting architecture patterns that are implemented by big software companies through reviewing their architecture blogs. We will then use what we learnt to evaluate the trade-offs made in each architecture and brainstorm how these ideas could be enhanced given new requirements.

As an industry focused course, we'll need an industry focused ending. Hear from the industry how to land a full-time job or your second internship.