Architecture Anti-Patterns

Recognize and avoid common architectural mistakes that lead to fragility, complexity, or failure.

Context

You are reviewing an architecture and want to spot common anti-patterns. Patterns of failure repeat across organizations. Learn them, recognize them, guide teams away from them.

Domain Context

Based on architecture and design anti-patterns research:

• God Object: One class/service responsible for too much. Hard to change, test, understand.
• Big Ball of Mud: No clear architecture. Code accretion with no structure. Hard to modify without breaking things.
• Circular Dependency: A depends on B, B depends on A. Can't use A without B, vice versa. Breaks modularity.
• Database as Integration Point: Services share database schema. Schema changes break all services. No independence.
• Premature Optimization: Design for 10x scale when you have 1x. Overcomplex, unmaintainable.

Instructions