Software Architectural Styles

Question 1

What does software architecture represent?

Answer 1

The high-level logical structure of software, composed of components and their interfaces.

Question 2

What does the interface of a component include?

Answer 2

The interaction with other components, the system, end-users, or hardware devices.

Question 3

According to IEEE, what is software architecture?

Answer 3

The fundamental organization of a system embodied in its components, their relationships, and the principles governing its design and maintenance.

Question 4

Why is software architecture critical for success?

Answer 4

It represents the earliest and most significant design decisions.

Question 5

What is the role of software architecture among stakeholders?

Answer 5

A communication medium to help them understand the application.

Question 6

What are some architectural styles? (5)

Answer 6

Data flow (pipe and filter), data-centred, object-oriented, layered (n-layer), and model-view-controller (MVC).

Question 7

What are the components of a data flow architecture?

Answer 7

Filters and pipes.

Question 8

What is a filter in a data flow architecture?

Answer 8

An independent, self-contained processing unit.

Question 9

What are the benefits of a data flow architecture?

Answer 9

Filters can be executed in parallel, improving efficiency.

Question 10

What are the 2 types of filters?

Answer 10

Passive and active.

Question 11

What are the 2 types of pipes?

Answer 11

Bounded and typed.

Question 12

What are the two groups of data flow styles?

Answer 12

Pipe and filter, and pipeline.

Question 13

What are the benefits of the data flow style?

Answer 13

Maintainability, reusability, and support for concurrent processing.

Question 14

What are the components of a data-centred architecture?

Answer 14

Data store (shared memory) and clients.

Question 15

What are the 2 types of data stores?

Answer 15

Repository and blackboard.

Question 16

What is the repository style?

Answer 16

Passive; clients check the data store for changes.

Question 17

What is the blackboard style?

Answer 17

Active; the data store notifies clients of changes.

Question 18

What are examples of repository styles?

Answer 18

Relational and non-relational databases.

Question 19

What are examples of blackboard styles?

Answer 19

Expert systems and knowledge bases.

Question 20

What are the benefits of the data-centred style?

Answer 20

Reduced data duplication, data availability, and easy addition/deletion of clients.

Question 21

What does a class describe?

Answer 21

The properties of an entity in terms of attributes, data types, and operations.

Question 22

What is the connector between classes?

Answer 22

Functional code (method invocation).

Question 23

What are the benefits of object-oriented architecture?

Answer 23

Information hiding, inheritance, and data integrity.

Question 24

What is information hiding?

Answer 24

Hiding implementation details from clients.

Question 25

What is inheritance?

Answer 25

Developing reusable classes.

Question 26

What are the typical layers in a three-layer architecture?

Answer 26

Presentation layer, business logic layer, and data access/storage layer.

Question 27

What is the presentation layer?

Answer 27

The user interface for accessing services and displaying results.

Question 28

What is the business logic layer?

Answer 28

Processes user events, coordinates between layers, and makes logical decisions.

Question 29

What is the data layer?

Answer 29

Accesses and stores data.

Question 30

What is MVC architecture?

Answer 30

Model-View-Controller architecture, designed to separate data display, system behaviour, and data access.

Question 31

What is the role of the model in MVC?

Answer 31

Handles data and responds to queries.

Question 32

What is the role of the view in MVC?

Answer 32

Handles data display.

Question 33

What is the role of the controller in MVC?

Answer 33

Handles user actions and updates the model and view.

Question 34

What are the benefits of MVC?

Answer 34

Consistency between model and views, view independence, and code reusability.

Question 35

What is distributed architecture?

Answer 35

Deploying software architecture on hardware like a computer network.

Question 36

What is the client-server style?

Answer 36

A two-tier distributed architecture with independent clients accessing a service system.

Question 37

What is the connector between client and server?

Answer 37

Network protocols.

Question 38

What are the rules of communication in client-server architecture?

Answer 38

Clients know server identity, clients are independent, and servers only respond to requests.

Question 39

What are the benefits of distributed architecture?

Answer 39

Scalability and fault tolerance.

Question 40

What is event-driven architecture?

Answer 40

A system composed of events and components that consume or report events.

Question 41

What is service-oriented architecture (SOA)?

Answer 41

Developing applications by composing existing services from different providers.

Question 42

What is peer-to-peer (P2P) networking?

Answer 42

A decentralized network where nodes (peers) interact directly and share resources.