Monolith vs. Microservices
Two ways to structure an application: one large codebase deployed as a single unit, or many small services that each do one job and talk over the network. 'Microservices' is on almost every backend resume, but many people only worked on one service inside someone else's system. Neither approach is more senior — knowing when not to split is a senior skill too.
How to tell them apart on a resume
Monolith
One main application, a shared database, Rails/Django/Spring apps, a 'modular monolith', or a project to break up a large legacy system.
Microservices
Dozens of services, API gateway, service mesh, Kafka, Kubernetes, distributed tracing, service ownership — and the operational problems that come with them.
The question that settles it
“How many services were in the system, how many did you own, and was there a moment you decided not to split something into a new service?”
Read the full definitions
Open the full tool for the other look-alike pairs, role profiles, and the JD decoder.