Microservices
An architecture where an application is split into small, independent services that communicate over the network. Each service owns its own data and can be deployed separately.
What is Microservices?
An architecture where an application is split into small, independent services that communicate over the network. Each service owns its own data and can be deployed separately.
Microservices is a intermediate-level concept that sits in the Microservices Architecture area of system design. Engineers reach for it whenever they need to reason about real-world trade-offs in that space — not just for textbook correctness, but because real production systems at companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Google make these decisions every day.
If you want to go deeper than this definition — with diagrams, code, and a quiz to lock it in — work through the "Microservices" lesson linked below. It walks through the why, the mechanism, the trade-offs, and how the giants actually use it in production.
Learn Microservices in depth
Full interactive lesson with diagrams, code examples, real-world references, and a quiz.
Open the Microservices lessonRelated lessons
Lessons that touch on Microservices as part of a larger topic.
Microservices Architecture
The complete guide to microservices, principles, communication patterns, data ownership, and the real trade-offs nobody talks about
intermediate · microservices architecture
Saga Pattern
Long-lived transactions without distributed locking, orchestration vs choreography for microservices
advanced · distributed systems core
Path-Based Routing
Routing requests to different backends based on the URL path, the backbone of microservices
foundation · load balancing proxies
API Gateway
Centralized entry point that handles authentication, rate limiting, routing, and request transformation for microservices
foundation · load balancing proxies
API Composition
Aggregate data from multiple microservices into a single response at the API layer
intermediate · api design protocols
See also
Related glossary terms you might want to look up next.
Monolith
A single, unified application where all features share the same codebase and deployment. Simpler to start with but harder to scale individual parts.
Service Discovery
The mechanism by which microservices find and communicate with each other. Services register themselves and others can look them up by name.
API Gateway
A single entry point for all client requests that routes them to the appropriate microservice. Handles auth, rate limiting, and request transformation.