Design Patterns
04 Dec 2024A Software Developers Cookbook
Think of design patterns as the recipes in a chef’s cookbook. Each recipe is a carefully tested approach to creating the absolute perfect dish. It is a guide to the combinations of ingredients, added just the right way to achieve a consistent, reliable result. For a software developer, these “recipes” are solutions to common problems in design, helping to craft elegant and functional systems.
Design patterns provide a foundation for solving recurring problems with efficiency and clarity. They are patterns because they have stood the test of time, much like a perfect family recipe passed down through generations.
Design patterns, like recipes, empower developers to tackle complex challenges with confidence. They give us a structured way to approach problems while leaving room for creativity and adaptation. Just like a chef might experiment with his recipe’s ingredients or techniques, a developer can tailor design patterns to suit the unique needs of a project.
So, in an interview when asked “what are design patterns?”, I will say they are my recipes for software design, guiding me to efficient solutions and elegant work. And when asked “what design patterns have you used in your own code?” I can say that in the baking world, I am a cake decorator. In software, decorators allow you to layer additional functionality onto objects dynamically. In my work I have used design patterns as seen in my work such as dynamically adding styles to HTML elements.
