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Anti-Patterns and Misuse

Patterns are tools, not goals. These are common misuses that reduce clarity and maintainability.

Common anti-patterns​

Overusing Singleton​

Singletons introduce global state and hidden dependencies. Prefer dependency injection or a scoped service.

Factory for everything​

Factories add indirection and boilerplate. Use them only when creation logic varies or needs isolation.

God Facade​

A facade that grows into a mega-service becomes a bottleneck and breaks modularity. Split by responsibility.

Inheritance for minor changes​

If you change only small behavior, prefer composition (Strategy/Decorator) over subclassing.

Using patterns without a problem​

If the code is simple, keep it simple. Patterns should solve real constraints.

Red flags​

  • You can’t explain why a pattern is used.
  • The pattern adds more code than it saves.
  • Testing became harder after adding the pattern.