Reactive Architecture: Building Scalable Systems

Building Reactive Systems requires a balance between Consistency and Availability. This course will explain why that balance exists.

What will I get after passing this course?

• You will receive a completion certificate.

Course Syllabus

• Consistency, Availability, and Scalability
  1. Definitions for Consistency, Availability, and Scalability.
  2. A discussion of the difference between Performance and Scalability.
• Consistency in Distributed Systems
  1. An indepth discussion of how physics impacts our ability to provide consistency in a distributed system.
  2. A definition, and discussion, of Eventual Consistency.
  3. A definition, and discussion, of Strong Consistency.
• Laws of Scalability
  1. Contention in Distributed Systems.
  2. Amdahl’s Law.
  3. Coherency in Distributed Systems./li>
  4. Gunther’s Law of Universal Scalability
• CAP Theorem
  1. Defining Partition Tolerance.
  2. Discussing the balance between Consistency and Availability.
• Sharding
  1. Using Sharding for Consistency.
  2. Explanation of how Sharding works.
  3. Advantages/Disadvantages of Sharding.
• Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs)
  1. Using CRDTs for Availability.
  2. Explanation of how CRDTs work.
  3. Advantages/Disadvantages of CRDTs.
• Consistency or Availability
  1. How do we decide which one to pick?

General Information

• It is self-paced.
• It can be taken at any time.
• It can be taken as many times as you wish.

Recommended skills prior to taking this course

• Experience in the design of software systems.

Grading scheme

• The minimum passing mark for the course is 75%, where the review questions are worth 40%, the case study exercises are worth 30% and the final exam is worth 30% of the course mark.
• You have 1 attempt to take the final exam with multiple attempts per question.