Anti-patterns (distributed monolith, chatty services) in Microservices - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is a distributed monolith in microservices architecture?

A distributed monolith is a system where microservices are tightly coupled and depend heavily on each other, causing the system to behave like a single monolithic application despite being split into services.

beginner

Why are chatty services considered an anti-pattern?

Chatty services make many small calls between microservices, increasing network overhead, latency, and complexity, which can degrade system performance and reliability.

intermediate

How does a distributed monolith affect scalability?

Because services are tightly coupled, scaling one service often requires scaling others, reducing the benefits of microservices and making the system harder to scale independently.

intermediate

What is a common cause of chatty services?

Poor service boundaries and design that require frequent synchronous communication between services for small pieces of data or operations.

intermediate

Name one strategy to avoid a distributed monolith.

Design clear service boundaries with high cohesion and low coupling, and use asynchronous communication patterns where possible.

What best describes a distributed monolith?

A Microservices communicating only asynchronously

B Microservices tightly coupled behaving like a monolith

C A single large monolithic application

D Completely independent microservices with no communication

A distributed monolith occurs when microservices are tightly coupled and behave like a single monolith.

Why are chatty services problematic?

A They reduce network calls

B They simplify debugging

C They improve service independence

D They increase latency and network overhead

Chatty services cause many small calls, increasing latency and network overhead.

Which practice helps avoid distributed monoliths?

A Clear service boundaries and asynchronous communication

B Tight coupling between services

C Frequent synchronous calls between services

D Sharing databases between services

Clear boundaries and async communication reduce tight coupling and avoid distributed monoliths.

What is a sign of chatty services in a system?

A Few, large service calls

B No communication between services

C Many small, frequent service calls

D Services deployed on the same server

Chatty services make many small, frequent calls increasing overhead.

How does a distributed monolith impact deployment?

A Deploying one service often requires deploying others

B Services can be deployed independently without issues

C Deployment is fully automated and simple

D It reduces deployment time

Tight coupling means deploying one service often requires deploying others, reducing independence.

Explain what a distributed monolith is and why it is considered an anti-pattern in microservices.

Think about how microservices should be independent but sometimes behave like one big app.

Describe chatty services and discuss their impact on system performance.

Imagine many tiny phone calls between friends instead of fewer longer calls.