Be Wise Apps
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A route for experienced learners
This page is for people who already build, test, run or manage software. The course is designed to be taken in order, from Chapter 0 to Chapter 12, because each chapter builds on the one before, and that holds for experienced learners too. What changes is the pace: you may prefer to skim the chapters, or parts of chapters, that cover ground you already know, and spend your time on the ones that are new to you.
The route at a glance
- Order
- The chapters in their natural order, 0 to 12, the same order as the path for beginners
- Pace
- Skim what you already know, but do not skip it: every chapter has its own test
- Certificate
- Pass all 13 chapter tests, then the final examination and the architecture case study
- Time
- About 40 hours to read every chapter in full; chapters you skim take much less
Skimming is fine, but every chapter test still has to be passed
To obtain the Be Wise Certificate of Completion you must:
- pass the test at the end of every one of the 13 chapters, including the chapters you skimmed (80% overall, with at least 2 out of 5 on each written answer);
- then pass the final examination (60 multiple-choice questions from the whole course, pass mark 70%);
- and pass the architecture case study (25 out of 50 or more, with at least 4 on every criterion).
The final examination draws its questions roughly equally from every chapter, so a chapter you skimmed is examined as fully as one you read closely, and your best scores in the chapter tests make up 40% of your final grade.
How to skim a chapter well
- Watch the chapter introduction and read its overviewEach chapter opens with a narrated video introduction and an overview of what you will learn, what you should read first and the key terms. If all of it is familiar, the chapter is a good candidate for skimming.
- Read “The idea in brief” and “What you need to know” in each sectionIf you could have written both yourself, move on to the next section. If anything is new or surprising, watch the video lesson and read the full treatment.
- Check “Before you read this”Intermediate and advanced sections open with a box listing the earlier sections and terms they rely on. If one of them is unfamiliar, go back to it: you may have skimmed too quickly.
- Try “Check your understanding”Answer each question honestly before you look. Wrong answers show you which parts deserve a closer read before the test.
- Take the chapter test before moving onIf you do not pass, the result shows which sections to revise, and you can try again with different questions after 10 minutes. There is no limit on attempts, and your best score counts.
Beginner mode and the readiness questions
Choosing this route leaves Beginner mode off, so you see every section in full. If a chapter is new to you, you can switch Beginner mode on at the top of any section page: it folds the most technical tables and code until you tap Show. The chapter tests cover the folded parts too.
From Chapter 1 onwards, each chapter page opens with five quick, unmarked questions, “Am I ready for this chapter?”, on the earlier ideas it relies on. They are a fast way to spot a gap before you decide how quickly to take the chapter.
Chapter by chapter
A guide only: whether you can skim a chapter depends on what you already know, and the chapter test is the real check. About the course also sets out which chapters matter most for developers, architects, managers and AI engineers.
Chapter 0: Start Here: How Software Works
You may be able to skim it if you already write, test or run software and know how programs, data structures, networks, databases, APIs and the cloud fit together.
Chapter 1: What Software Architecture Is
You may be able to skim it if you already work as an architect and know the ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 and SEI definitions, how architecture differs from design, stakeholders, trade-offs and technical debt.
Chapter 2: Quality Attributes and Architecturally Significant Requirements
You may be able to skim it if you already write measurable quality attribute scenarios and use ISO/IEC 25010 to elicit, prioritise and trade off requirements.
Chapter 3: Design Principles and Fundamentals
You may be able to skim it if you already apply modularity, coupling and cohesion, information hiding, SOLID at component scale and connascence in your day-to-day work.
Chapter 4: Documenting and Communicating Architecture
You may be able to skim it if you already document systems with views and viewpoints, the C4 model, Architecture Decision Records and arc42.
Chapter 5: Architectural Styles I: Monoliths and Modular Designs
You may be able to skim it if you already have designed layered, modular-monolith, hexagonal and clean architectures, and used domain-driven design.
Chapter 6: Architectural Styles II: Distributed Systems
You may be able to skim it if you already have designed and run service-based, microservice and event-driven systems, and can reason about CAP, PACELC and sagas.
Chapter 7: Data Architecture
You may be able to skim it if you already choose databases and design for transactions and isolation, replication and partitioning, CQRS, event sourcing and caching.
Chapter 8: Security, Privacy and Compliance by Design
You may be able to skim it if you already carry out threat modelling, design identity and access with OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, and build in privacy by design.
Chapter 9: Performance, Scalability, Resilience and Operability
You may be able to skim it if you already are responsible for scaling, timeouts, retries and circuit breakers, SLOs and error budgets, observability and capacity planning.
Chapter 10: Cloud-Native and Infrastructure Architecture
You may be able to skim it if you already design for containers and Kubernetes, with infrastructure as code, CI/CD, deployment strategies and multi-region set-ups.
Chapter 11: Evaluation, Decision-Making and Governance
You may be able to skim it if you already run architecture reviews such as ATAM, use fitness functions and lead architecture governance and modernisation.
Chapter 12: Architecting AI-Enabled Systems
You may be able to skim it if you already design production systems around machine learning models and large language models, including retrieval-augmented generation, agents, evaluation and guardrails.
After Chapter 12
Once you have passed all 13 chapter tests, the final examination and the architecture case study open, and you can take them in either order. About the course explains how they are marked and how the final grade is worked out. If you are new to software after all, the path for beginners takes you through the same chapters with more support.