Modern Software Architecture - Foundation

Design scalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable systems using modern software architecture principles, C4 modeling,

What you'll learn
- Understand the role of a Software Architect – defining system structure, aligning design with business goals, and managing technical debt
- Apply the C4 model to create clear, layered architecture diagrams (Context, Container, Component, Code) for different stakeholders
- Measure and optimize performance using key metrics like response time, throughput, CPU, memory, and I/O efficiency
- Diagnose latency issues (network, disk, CPU, memory) and apply techniques to reduce them in real-world systems
- Implement concurrency controls—locking, deadlock prevention, and resource contention mitigation—to improve throughput
- Learn about how to Design scalable architectures with horizontal/vertical scaling, load balancing, CDNs, and microservices
- Maintain systems effectively using modular design, clear documentation, automated testing (CI/CD), and refactoring practices
- Improve reliability and fault tolerance with redundancy, replication, failover, monitoring, and chaos testing
- Embed security and compliance into architectures—covering authentication, authorization, encryption, audit logging, regulatory standards, and secure SDLC
- Learn about reusable, modular components that follow principles like loose coupling, high cohesion, and encapsulation with APIs
- Connect architecture to real-world case studies like banking systems, showing how scaling, performance tuning, and compliance apply in practice.

Requirements
- Basic understanding of software development (any language like Java, Python, or C#).
- Familiarity with web applications and client-server architecture is helpful but not mandatory.
- No advanced math or cloud certifications required—this course builds from fundamentals.

Description
Modern software systems must bescalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable—yet designing them requires more than picking the right tech stack. It requires a systematic approach to architecture.

In this course,Modern Software Architecture, you’ll learn how to think and work like a software architect. We’ll begin with a clear understanding of what software architecture is and the critical responsibilities of an architect—both technical (system structure, roadmaps, quality attributes) and collaborative (bridging business and engineering, communicating trade-offs, guiding developers).

You will then master theC4 modelfor communicating architecture effectively across different levels of abstraction—from big-picture system context down to components and code.

The technical pillars of modern architecture are covered through dedicated modules:

Performance and Efficiency– resource optimization, throughput, and bottleneck management.

Scalability and Maintainability– scaling strategies, microservices, caching/CDNs, plus practices like CI/CD, modular design, and refactoring.

Reliability and Fault Tolerance– redundancy, replication, failover, monitoring, and chaos testing to ensure systems survive real-world failures.

Security and Compliance– designing for protection and regulatory alignment from the ground up.

Reusability and Modularity– building shared, consistent components that accelerate development and reduce technical debt.

What you’ll learn

Explain what software architecture is and why it matters.

Define the key responsibilities of a software architect—both technical and collaborative.

Communicate designs clearly using theC4 model(Context, Container, Component, Code).

Optimizeperformance and efficiencythrough resource management, throughput tuning, and bottleneck resolution.

Applyscalability strategies: horizontal vs. vertical scaling, load balancing, stateless/stateful design, caching, CDNs, and microservices.

Improvemaintainabilitywith modular design, documentation, CI/CD, version control, and refactoring practices.

Design forreliability and fault toleranceusing redundancy, replication, failover, monitoring, and chaos testing.

Implementsecurity and compliancemeasures including encryption, access control, identity management, and regulatory alignment.

Buildreusable, modular componentsthat accelerate development and reduce long-term technical debt.

By the end of this course, you’ll have apractical, end-to-end understanding of software architecture foundation, grounded in real-world examples and best practices. You’ll be able to design, communicate, and evolve systems that are resilient, efficient, and future-ready—whether deployed on cloud platforms or on-premise.

Who this course is for:
- Aspiring Software Architects who want to transition from senior developer roles.
- Developers, Tech Leads, and System Designers seeking to strengthen their architecture design skills.
- Engineering managers who need to evaluate trade-offs in performance, scalability, and reliability.
- Students & professionals preparing for architecture interviews or certifications.
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