Microservices
An architecture where an application is split into many small, independently deployable services, instead of one large program.
Think of it like
Like a food court with separate independent stalls for pizza, sushi, and burgers, instead of one giant kitchen making everything.
Junior or senior?
Junior sounds like
Describes microservices only by their independent-deployability benefits.
Senior sounds like
Can also name a specific problem they created that a monolith wouldn't have.
Ask them
“What's a problem microservices created for your team that a monolith wouldn't have?”
Sounds like real experience
Names a specific operational cost — a cross-service debugging chain, a deployment ordering dependency, duplicated logic across services — not just a textbook tradeoff.
Probe further if
Recites the standard microservices-vs-monolith tradeoffs from a blog post without describing a real cost their own team actually paid.