Software Architect

☐ Programming Mastery · Required · 10 hrs

Deep language knowledge (one or two), clean code, refactoring, code reviews, technical debt management. Architects who can't code lose credibility.

☐ Design Patterns & SOLID · Required · 8 hrs

GoF patterns, SOLID principles, DRY, YAGNI, composition over inheritance. The vocabulary of well-structured code.

☐ System Design Fundamentals · Required · 20 hrs

Scalability, load balancing, caching, databases at scale, CAP theorem, consistent hashing, rate limiting. The foundation of every architecture interview and decision.

☐ Microservices Architecture · Required · 10 hrs

Service decomposition, domain-driven design, bounded contexts, API contracts, versioning, inter-service communication. How large product companies are structured.

☐ Event-Driven Architecture · Required · 7 hrs

CQRS, event sourcing, saga pattern, eventual consistency, Kafka-based architectures. Handles high throughput and decoupling at scale.

• Event-Driven Architecture (Apache Kafka): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/apache-kafka/event-driven-architecture

☐ API Design · Required · 5 hrs

REST best practices, GraphQL, gRPC, API versioning, backward compatibility, documentation. Every service boundary is an API.

☐ Data Architecture · Required · 8 hrs

Polyglot persistence, CQRS read models, database per service, data migration strategies, distributed transactions. Data is the hardest part of distributed systems.

• Data Warehouse vs Data Lake vs Lakehouse (Data Engineering): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/data-engineering/warehouse-lake-lakehouse
• Medallion Architecture — Bronze, Silver, Gold (Data Engineering): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/data-engineering/medallion-architecture
• Lakehouse Architecture — Why It Exists and How It Works (Data Engineering): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/data-engineering/lakehouse-architecture

☐ Cloud Architecture Patterns · Required · 10 hrs

Cloud-native patterns, strangler fig, bulkhead, circuit breaker, retry with backoff. Apply AWS/Azure/GCP services architecturally, not just operationally.

☐ Security Architecture · Required · 7 hrs

Threat modelling, zero trust, OAuth/OIDC flows, secrets management, defence in depth. Security is an architectural quality, not an afterthought.

• Security Architecture — Defense in Depth and Zero Trust (Cybersecurity): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/cybersecurity/security-architecture

☐ Observability at Scale · Required · 5 hrs

Distributed tracing, structured logging, metrics hierarchies, SLI/SLO. Architects define observability contracts, not just logging standards.

• Data Observability — Metrics, Logging and Anomaly Detection (Data Engineering): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/data-engineering/monitoring-observability
• Monitoring and Observability (Apache Kafka): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/apache-kafka/monitoring-observability

☐ Trade-off Analysis · Required · 8 hrs

CAP theorem in practice, consistency vs availability, build vs buy, monolith vs microservices at various scales. Architecture is a series of trade-offs, not a list of best practices.

☐ Architecture Documentation · Required · 4 hrs

C4 diagrams, Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), RFC process, design docs. Decisions undocumented are decisions that get reversed.

☐ Technical Leadership · Required · 8 hrs

RFC reviews, technical roadmaps, mentoring senior engineers, communicating to non-technical stakeholders, scope management. Architecture is people work.

☐ Cost & Sustainability · Recommended · 4 hrs

Cloud cost modeling, right-sizing at the architecture level, FinOps principles, build vs run cost. Architecture decisions live in the P&L.

• Performance Tuning and Cost Optimisation (Data Engineering): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/data-engineering/performance-tuning
• Cost Optimization (Snowflake): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/snowflake/cost-optimization