Skip to main content

Module Quiz

Complete this quiz after finishing all concept and practice pages. Save your answers before opening separate quiz calibration. Treat it closed-book on a first pass; then review.

Current Module Questions​

Question 1: The Microservices Distillation​

Which single property is the strongest test for whether something is a microservice, rather than just a service?

Question 2: Right-Size the Service -- Scenario A​

A 6-engineer team is considering splitting their modular monolith into 10 microservices. They have manual deploys, no distributed tracing, and one on-call person rotating weekly. What is your recommendation?

Question 3: Strangler-Fig​

Why does strangler-fig migration succeed where big-bang rewrites fail?

Question 4: Bounded Context = Service?​

Is a bounded context the same as a microservice? Justify.

Question 5: Right-Size the Service -- Scenario B​

Your colleague proposes a "Customer Service" that exposes GET/POST/PUT/DELETE /customers, a "Product Service" with the same pattern, and an "Order Service" that orchestrates both. What anti-pattern is this, and what should you propose instead?

Question 6: Database-Per-Service​

A colleague suggests keeping one PostgreSQL instance but giving each service its own schema to "simplify ops." Is this OK? Why or why not?

Question 7: Contract Compatibility​

Which of the following changes to an existing sync API are safe to ship without coordinating consumers? Which are breaking?

a) Add a new optional field to a response. b) Add a new required field to a request. c) Rename an existing response field. d) Add a new enum value to a response field. e) Relax a validation (accept more inputs).

Question 8: Consumer-Driven Contract Testing​

Why is CDC consumer-driven rather than provider-driven?

Question 9: Sync vs Async​

Convert this synchronous call chain to a more resilient design, and justify: Frontend -> Orders -> Payments -> Inventory -> Fulfillment.

Question 10: Resilience Primitives​

Why is a timeout alone insufficient protection for a slow downstream?

Question 11: Right-Size the Service -- Scenario C​

A team has an existing 30-service microservices architecture. Deploy frequency is lower than when they had a monolith. Three services share one database. Every API change requires coordinated deploys across 4+ services. What is their problem, and what do you recommend?

Question 12: Distributed Tracing​

What specifically is needed, at each service, for distributed tracing to work end-to-end on a single request?

Question 13: Expand-Contract​

Describe the expand-contract pattern for renaming a field user_id to customer_id in a response. What is the customer-visible behavior during each phase?

Question 14: Conway's Law​

Your org has 3 teams and 15 microservices. What prediction does Conway's Law make about what the architecture will look like in 12 months?

Question 15: Team Topology​

What is the difference between a platform team and a shared-service team, and why does it matter?

Interleaved Review Questions​

Prior Module Question 1 (S7 M3, Bounded Contexts)​

Why would two teams call the same entity by the same name and mean different things, and what does DDD recommend when they do?

Prior Module Question 2 (S7 M2, Architecture Patterns)​

Why is a modular monolith often a better first architecture than microservices for a new product?

Prior Module Question 3 (S6, Data Layer)​

Why does ACID consistency become harder across multiple services?

Prior Module Question 4 (S5, Design)​

Why is high cohesion + low coupling a goal for both classes and services?

Prior Module Question 5 (S4, Systems Programming)​

Why is "the network is reliable" one of the famous fallacies of distributed computing?

Self-Assessment and Remediation​

Scoring and Advancement Criteria​

Mastery Level (90-100% correct):

  • Retrieval is strong; complete all module and semester evidence gates before advancing.
  • Evidence: you can argue both for and against microservices given a concrete team and product, and walk through a full decomposition + contract + resilience sketch on demand.

Proficient Level (75-89% correct):

  • Targeted review of specifically missed questions. Redo the corresponding mini drill.
  • For each missed cluster, write a one-paragraph Feynman note in your own words.

Developing Level (60-74% correct):

  • Rework practice pages 01 and 02 on a different industry (switch from e-commerce to SaaS or logistics).
  • Re-read the three concepts most frequently missed.
  • Retake the quiz one week later.

Insufficient Level (<60% correct):

  • Return to Semester 7 Module 3 (Bounded Contexts) first; this module depends heavily on the DDD intuition.
  • Then re-read this module's concept pages in order without skipping drills.
  • Retake the quiz after a full concept+practice replay.

Remediation Resources​

Progression boundary​

Quiz performance calibrates retrieval and reasoning. It does not replace runnable work, changed-case transfer, the module assessment or required semester evidence. Consult practice calibration for the additional independent cases.