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External Exercises

Unlike math or algorithms modules, microservices exercises are design exercises and operational drills, not LeetCode-style problem sets. Use the lanes below to build reps.

How To Use This Page​

  1. Finish the relevant concept pages first.
  2. Solve at least one drill yourself without looking up notes.
  3. Only then open external material.
  4. Keep a mistake log with tags like shared db, entity service, timeout missing, retry no backoff, sync fan-out, contract break, lockstep deploy, broken trace propagation.

Lane 1: Decomposition Design Exercises​

Use this lane when you can recite the theory but freeze when asked to decompose a real system.

  • microservices.io patterns index -- microservices.io/patterns/index.html. Pick 3 decomposition patterns and write a one-page comparison.
  • Sam Newman's boundaries chapter exercises -- Building Microservices 2nd ed., chapter "Identifying Microservice Boundaries". Do the end-of-chapter exercises on a SaaS or finance domain.
  • Self-curated decomposition kata (from practice page 01): pick 3 industries and decompose each:
    • Industry 1: E-commerce retailer.
    • Industry 2: SaaS project-management (or collaboration) tool.
    • Industry 3: Ride-sharing or food-delivery logistics.

Target outcomes:

  • 3 completed decompositions with owned-data tables
  • 2 written anti-pattern audits ("here is why this is not a distributed monolith")
  • 1 expand-contract plan for a cross-service rename

Lane 2: Contract and Data Drills​

Use this lane when your API designs drift toward entity services or when you can't write an OpenAPI fragment without looking it up.

  • OpenAPI specification -- spec.openapis.org/oas/latest. Skim once, then write one complete mini-spec (3 paths, 4 schemas) for a hypothetical service.
  • JSON Schema -- json-schema.org/learn. Write an event schema for the OrderConfirmed/OrderCancelled/ShipmentDispatched trio.
  • Pact Foundation workshop -- github.com/pact-foundation/pact-workshop-js (or the equivalent for your language). Run through the 12-step workshop.
  • Confluent Schema Registry compatibility docs -- if you plan to use Kafka, read the 3-page section on compatibility modes (BACKWARD, FORWARD, FULL, NONE).

Target outcomes:

  • 2 OpenAPI specs authored from scratch, schema-valid
  • 2 event schemas with event_version field and example payload
  • 1 CDC test authored in Pact for a real interaction
  • 1 written-down compatibility cheatsheet for your team

Lane 3: Resilience and Communication​

Use this lane when the theory is clear but you cannot confidently wire the four primitives onto a real call path.

  • resilience4j docs -- resilience4j.readme.io/docs for JVM.
  • Polly docs -- pollydocs.org for .NET.
  • opossum -- github.com/nodeshift/opossum for Node.js.
  • Envoy retry and circuit breaker docs -- envoyproxy.io/docs for mesh-level resilience.
  • Release It! exercise set -- Michael Nygard's book has end-of-chapter exercises on stability patterns. Do the "analyze this incident" exercises for chapters on Timeouts, Circuit Breakers, and Bulkheads.

Target outcomes:

  • 3 call paths specified in full (timeout / retry / breaker / bulkhead table)
  • 2 sequence diagrams drawn for partial-failure scenarios
  • 1 small code experiment (any language) implementing a circuit-breaker state machine

Lane 4: Observability and Operations​

Use this lane for tracing, deployment independence, and operational habits.

Target outcomes:

  • 1 local demo where a request traces across two services end-to-end
  • 2 expand-contract plans written for actual contract changes you would like to make
  • 1 written self-assessment of your real team topology

Self-Curated Problem Set​

Build a custom set with these minimums:

  • 3 full decompositions across different industries
  • 3 contract authorings (OpenAPI + event schema + CDC test for each)
  • 3 resilience specifications for different call paths
  • 2 trace designs with at least one retry and one bottleneck
  • 1 full ADR (architecture decision record) memo arguing for or against microservices for a chosen product

Completion Checklist​

  • Completed at least one lane in full
  • Logged at least 12 tagged mistakes with corrections
  • Wrote at least 3 full decompositions
  • Authored at least 2 complete contract specs (sync + async for each)
  • Drew at least 2 resilience sequence diagrams
  • Ran at least one local tracing experiment

If you cannot do all of the above, your fluency is not where you think. Redo the weakest lane.