Microservices are an architectural style where a system is built as a collection of small, independent services. Each service focuses on a single responsibility and communicates with others through APIs or messaging. This approach allows teams to build, deploy, and scale components independently. Microservices improve modularity and resilience by isolating failures to individual services. However, they increase operational complexity due to distributed communication. Many modern systems adopt microservices as they grow beyond monolithic architectures.
key characteristics
Microservices communicate over network protocols such as HTTP or message queues. Each service often has its own database, deployment pipeline, and scaling rules. Observability becomes critical, requiring logging, tracing, and metrics to understand cross service behavior. Microservices improve agility but require robust DevOps practices. API contracts help maintain compatibility across services. When generating designs with AI, being explicit about service boundaries produces clearer architectures.