A General Dive
This week, I looked into the topic of something called microservice architecture. It’s a way of designing software systems that breaks them into smaller, independent services that work together. To better understand it, I read the article “MicroserviceArchitecture”, which gave me a beginner-friendly explanation of how it works, its benefits, and some challenges. Since I’m new to computer science, I thought this topic was interesting because it seems like something I might use if I ever work on big software projects.
The article explains that instead of building one big application (a monolith), microservices split the application into smaller pieces. Each piece, or “service,” can do a specific job, like managing user accounts or processing payments. These services talk to each other using APIs, and they’re independent, so you can change or fix one without messing up the others. The article also talks about the pros and cons. On the good side, microservices make apps easier to scale and maintain. But on the downside, they can get pretty complicated to set up and manage.
I picked this article because microservices came up during class discussions, and I didn’t really get it at first. I wanted to find a resource that explained the basics without assuming too much prior knowledge. This article seemed perfect for a beginner because it explains things step by step. I also chose it because I’ve always wondered how big companies like Netflix or Amazon manage their systems, and it turns out they use microservices.
The biggest thing I learned is how microservices make scaling easier. For example, if one part of an app is getting more traffic—like a checkout service for an online store—you can scale just that service without touching the rest of the app. I thought that was really cool because it makes so much sense for big companies. Another thing I learned is how microservices make it easier for teams to work on different parts of a project at the same time. On the flip side, I also realized that microservices can be tricky because you have to make sure all the services work together smoothly. This made me think about how important it is to plan ahead when designing software.
I think this knowledge will be useful later when I work on group projects. If we ever build something complex, I might suggest using microservices to keep things organized. I also want to learn more about tools like Docker, which the article mentioned, because they help manage microservices.
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From the blog Computer Science From a Basketball Fan by Brandon Njuguna and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.