System DesignNov 30, 20259 min read
Designing Scalable Systems: From Monolith to Decoupled Services
Strategic patterns for scaling backend systems: caching layers, database read/write replicas, asynchronous decoupling, and fault isolation boundaries.
1. Modular Monolith Before Microservices
Premature microservice extraction introduces distributed latency, network partition failures, and complex distributed transactions. Starting with a cleanly decoupled modular monolith allows moving fast while maintaining strict domain boundaries.
2. Caching Hierarchy: In-Memory, Redis, and CDN
A multi-tier caching strategy guarantees that hot paths never touch the primary transactional database, preserving I/O budget for critical business writes.
Felopater Nabil
Full-Stack Software Engineer • philozz.com
Writing about distributed systems, resilient queues, database indexing, and pragmatic software craftsmanship.