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HLD Learn/Microservices & Service Architecture
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API Gateways in a Microservices World

4 min read

You'll learn to

  • -Explain the gateway's role once you have many services

The Protecting Your System module introduced the API Gateway as a good idea even for a single service. In a microservices world, it goes from "good idea" to close to mandatory: dozens of independently-deployed services can't each reimplement authentication, rate limiting, and TLS termination without massive duplicated effort and inconsistency.

Backend for Frontend (BFF)

Some architectures go a step further and run multiple gateways, each tailored to one type of client: a mobile BFF that aggregates and trims responses for a bandwidth-constrained app, and a separate web BFF shaped around what the browser client needs. Same backend services underneath, different front doors for different consumers.

Mobile App
Web App
Mobile BFF
Web BFF
Users Service
Orders Service

Each BFF aggregates the same backend services into a shape tailored to its specific client.

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