Microservice
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Microservices is an architecture where instead of one big app, you have many tiny apps that each do one thing. User service handles users, payment service handles payments, email service sends emails. They all talk to each other via APIs. Scalable but complex — like herding cats.
Real Talk
Microservices is an architectural style that structures an application as a collection of small, independently deployable services, each responsible for a specific business capability and communicating via APIs or message queues. Contrast with monolithic architecture.
When You'll Hear This
"We split the monolith into microservices." / "The auth microservice is down — everything using it is broken."
Related Terms
API (Application Programming Interface)
An API is like a menu at a restaurant. The kitchen (server) can do a bunch of things, but you can only order what's on the menu.
Event-driven
Event-driven architecture means services react to things that happen instead of constantly asking 'did anything change?
gRPC (Google Remote Procedure Call)
gRPC is like REST but on steroids and speaking a secret language only computers understand.
Monolith
A monolith is one big application that does everything. User management, payments, emails, notifications — all in the same codebase, deployed together.
Serverless
Serverless doesn't mean there are no servers — it means YOU don't have to think about servers. Someone else manages them, scales them, and patches them.