Semester 8Year 4 · EvenCore Subject★★★ Moderate
CS 802

Microservices Architecture

Study of microservices design patterns, API gateway, service discovery, inter-service communication, and distributed systems.

4Units
28Topics
4Credits
60hLecture hrs
100Max marks
Your Progress
0 / 28 topics
0% complete
Overview
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Why it matters
Netflix, Uber, Amazon — all use microservices. Breaking monoliths into independent services enables scaling, faster deployment, and team autonomy. Understanding service decomposition, APIs, and distributed patterns is critical for modern backend development.
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Placement relevance
Backend Engineer roles at product companies. System Design interviews test microservices knowledge. ₹20-45 LPA for senior backend roles. Every modern application uses microservices architecture.
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Prerequisites for
Backend Engineering · Distributed Systems · Cloud-Native Development · API Design · System Architecture
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Recommended books
Building Microservices by Sam Newman · Microservices Patterns by Chris Richardson · Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann · Domain-Driven Design by Eric Evans
Curriculum — 4 Units
U1
Unit 1 · 7 Topics · 0% complete
Microservices Fundamentals
⚡ Key Formulae
Microservices:Independent services, own database, lightweight communication (REST/gRPC)
Single Responsibility:Each service does ONE thing well
Monolith vs Microservices
Service Decomposition
Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
Bounded Context
Benefits & Challenges
When to Use Microservices
Design Principles
U2
Unit 2 · 7 Topics · 0% complete
Communication Patterns
⚡ Key Formulae
API Gateway:Single entry point → routes to microservices
Event-Driven:Producer → Event Broker → Consumer (decoupled)
Synchronous (REST, gRPC)
Asynchronous (Message Queues)
API Gateway Pattern
Service Mesh (Istio)
Event-Driven Architecture
Message Brokers (Kafka, RabbitMQ)
Request-Response vs Pub-Sub
U3
Unit 3 · 7 Topics · 0% complete
Service Discovery & Resilience
⚡ Key Formulae
Circuit Breaker:Closed → Open (after failures) → Half-Open (retry)
Service Discovery:Services register → client queries registry for endpoints
Service Discovery (Consul, Eureka)
Load Balancing
Circuit Breaker Pattern
Retry & Timeout Strategies
Bulkhead Pattern
Health Checks
Graceful Degradation
U4
Unit 4 · 7 Topics · 0% complete
Data Management & Deployment
⚡ Key Formulae
Saga:Sequence of local transactions + compensating transactions (rollback)
CQRS:Separate models: Commands (write) vs Queries (read)
Database per Service
Saga Pattern (Distributed Transactions)
CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation)
Event Sourcing
API Versioning
Containerization (Docker)
Kubernetes for Microservices
Previous Year Questions
Unit 12023 · End Semester10 marks
Compare Monolithic vs Microservices architecture. For an e-commerce application (user service, product service, order service, payment service), design the microservices decomposition. Draw architecture diagram.
Unit 22023 · End Semester8 marks
Explain API Gateway pattern with a diagram. How does it handle routing, authentication, rate limiting? Compare REST vs gRPC for inter-service communication.
Unit 32022 · End Semester6 marks
What is Circuit Breaker pattern? Explain the 3 states (Closed, Open, Half-Open) with a state diagram. Why is it important in microservices?
Exam Strategy
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Draw architecture diagrams
Microservices decomposition diagrams expected. Show services, databases, API gateway, message broker. Label communication patterns (REST, events).
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Know design patterns
API Gateway, Circuit Breaker, Saga, CQRS — explain with diagrams and use cases. These are 50% of exam. Understand WHEN to use each pattern.
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Monolith vs Microservices
Comparison table: deployment, scaling, complexity, team structure. Trade-offs matter. Not every app needs microservices. Give examples.
Related Subjects
Semester 8
DevOps
CS 801
Semester 5
Cloud Computing
CS 505
Semester 4
Database Management Systems
CS 401