Backend Architecture Foundations
A practical backend course focused on architecture thinking. Learn how to design scalable systems, choose between monoliths and microservices, build clean APIs, implement authentication correctly, and think in production-ready systems.
Oleksii Anzhiiak
Software Architect, Senior .NET Engineer & Co-Founder
By the end you'll be able to
- Design backend systems with confidence
- Make correct architecture trade-offs
- Build clean and maintainable APIs
- Implement authentication safely
- Think like a production-ready backend engineer
Is this course for you?
This is right for you if you…
- You're a Mid engineer being asked to design new services and want to do it without 6 months of trial and error
- Your team is mid-rewrite from monolith to microservices and you want to understand WHY before voting on architectural choices
- You've built APIs but the senior engineers keep saying 'the boundary should be elsewhere' and you don't yet know what they mean
Don't take this course if you…
- You're a Junior with no production code yet — architectural decisions are abstract until you've felt the pain. Build for 6 months first, then come back
- You want a microservices-only course — this covers the trade-off honestly. Sometimes the answer is 'monolith for now'
- You expect rigid rules — architecture is judgment under uncertainty. The course teaches reasoning, not formulas
Who teaches this
Oleksii Anzhiiak
Software Architect, Senior .NET Engineer & Co-Founder
Oleksii Anzhiiak is a Software Architect, Senior .NET Engineer, and Co-Founder of ToyCRM.com and ProfectusLab. With over 15 years of experience, he specializes in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, high-load backend development, and identity platforms. Oleksii designs complex architectures, builds secure authentication systems, and develops modern engineering education programs that help students achieve real career results.
Currently leads architecture for ToyCRM.com — a multi-tenant CRM platform built on .NET by our team. The same patterns and design decisions used there appear directly in the courses: identity & auth, distributed services, code review culture. You learn from engineers actively shipping production code, not from a textbook.
Syllabus
This course teaches backend developers how to think in systems, not just write code. You will learn architecture fundamentals used in real production systems.
- 1 Module 1: Backend Architecture Fundamentals
- 2 Module 2: Monolith vs Microservices — Real Trade-offs
- 3 Module 3: Service Boundaries & System Design
- 4 Module 4: API Design — REST Beyond Endpoints
- 5 Module 5: Authentication & Authorization
- 6 Module 6: JWT, Refresh Tokens & Security Pitfalls
- 7 Module 7: Data Modeling & Persistence
- 8 Module 8: Performance & Scalability
- 9 Module 9: Caching Strategies & Trade-offs
- 10 Module 10: Observability & Production Mindset
- 11 Module 11: Common Backend Architecture Mistakes
- 12 Module 12: Final Architecture Review Session
Prerequisites
You should already be writing backend code and want to grow into system and architecture-level thinking.
Basic backend development experience required (any language).
What you'll build
You leave with the architectural patterns that distinguish a Mid engineer from a Senior — clean architecture, dependency boundaries, microservices vs monolith, where authentication should sit, what's a service vs what's a feature. The vocabulary that turns 'I can write code' into 'I can design systems'.
- Backend architecture fundamentals
- Monolith vs microservices decision making
- API design and versioning
- Authentication and authorization (JWT)
- Performance and scalability thinking
- Caching strategies
- Production readiness and observability
Where this fits in your career
Read alongside this course
OpenSpec in 2026: The Operating System for Spec-Driven Development
Six weeks ago I installed @fission-ai/openspec. Yesterday I shipped a 14-file change in 90 minutes from a 200-line spec, in a brownfield codebase three engineers have been editing for two years — no merge conflicts, no review escalation. This is the senior-architect deep-dive on why OpenSpec is the first SDD tool that doesn't collapse under production reality.
Evals in 2026: The Test Suite for Systems That Aren't Deterministic
Your AI feature worked yesterday and fails today. No code change, no prompt change, no model change. That's what life without evals looks like. This is the third leg of the spec → context → evals trinity — and the discipline most teams skip.
Context Engineering: The Discipline That's Replacing Prompt Engineering in 2026
Prompt engineering was never the real skill. After two years of shipping AI features in production, the discipline that actually moves the needle is context engineering — state, tools, retrieval, history, and constraints assembled into the model's window at the right moment. Here's the senior-engineer's frame.
First lesson on us. Decide after meeting your instructor.
Sit in on the first session. If after lesson 1 you decide the instructor isn't the right fit, you don't pay for it — and no awkward conversation. (Trial offer applies to courses with more than 5 lessons; this one qualifies.)
Pricing & what's included
What's included
- 12 live sessions × 2 hours each — taught by the instructor, not a recording playback
- Slide deck for every session — yours to keep and refer back to
- Working code files and any data files used in class — cloned to your machine
- Weekly homework with personal code review from the instructor
- Recording on request — give the teacher a heads-up ("can't make Tuesday, please record it") and the session is recorded for you
Frequently asked questions
How much time per week will this take?
Plan for the live sessions plus roughly 1.5–2 hours of practice per session. Most students who finish on schedule put in 4–6 hours a week total. If you put in less, you still finish — it just takes longer.
What if I miss a class?
Tell the teacher BEFORE the session — "I can't make Tuesday, please record it" — and the teacher records that lesson and sends it to you. Recordings aren't a default catch-up archive; they're produced on request when you give a heads-up. After the lesson you do the homework, bring questions to the next session.
What's included in the price?
Live sessions with the teacher; the slide deck for each session (yours to keep); the working code files and any data files used in class; weekly homework with code review; and recordings of the sessions you give advance notice for. Anything beyond that — a certificate, alumni access, mock interviews — is listed explicitly in "What's included" above the FAQ for the courses where it applies.
What if I sign up and the teacher isn't a fit?
For courses with more than 5 lessons, the first session is effectively a trial — if after lesson 1 you decide the teacher isn't a fit, you don't pay for it. We'd rather you walk away after one lesson than push through 9 weeks of bad chemistry. (Courses with 5 or fewer lessons are short enough that the standard pricing applies — the trial offer doesn't make sense at that length.)
Can I get a refund partway through?
Yes, while more than half the course is still unused — i.e. you've attended fewer than 50% of the lessons. The refund covers the unused portion proportionally. Past the halfway point we don't refund, on the assumption that the value has been delivered.
Can I switch the language of instruction?
The live sessions run in the language listed under "Available Languages" above. Slides and code files are typically available in all four (English, Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian). Many students attend sessions in one language and read materials in another — that's normal.
Will I be ready for a real job after this course?
One course rarely gets anyone hired by itself — for any field. What this course gives you is the foundation a junior hiring manager expects: working code you wrote yourself, the vocabulary to read other people's code, and the practice habits that make you employable. The honest answer to "am I ready?" is on our roadmap (link in the page header) — open the level you want to reach and read the "You're ready when" checklist.
Can I pay in instalments?
Yes for courses with a "Monthly Payment" option in the at-a-glance ribbon — usually two or three equal monthly payments. Courses without that option are paid in one go. If the price is the blocker, write to us — we look at every case.