Arthur Acenas

Keeping it 100 With Design Patterns

25 Apr 2025

Design Patterns: The Secret Recipes of Software

Imagine walking into a kitchen where every chef invented new recipes on the fly. Sure, you might occasionally discover a culinary masterpiece, but most of the time, you’d end up with spaghetti ice cream soup (and not in a good way). Design patterns are the secret recipes seasoned developers pass down to avoid reinventing the wheel (or accidentally reinventing the wheel as a triangle). They are tried-and-true solutions to common problems in software design, capturing wisdom in a way that’s reusable, adaptable, and deliciously efficient.

The Gang of Four and Their Legendary Cookbook

In 1994, a group of developers known as the “Gang of Four” (Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides) published Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Think of it as the Michelin Guide for software architecture. They cataloged 23 design patterns, neatly divided into three categories: Creational (how objects are made), Structural (how objects are organized), and Behavioral (how objects communicate). These patterns weren’t new code per se, they were more like blueprints for how to solve recurring problems without losing your mind (or your clients).

Patterns I’ve Personally Cooked Up

In my own coding adventures, I’ve leaned on a few of these patterns more times than I can count (and trust me, I tried to count). For instance, the Singleton pattern has saved me from the classic “accidental army of database connections” problem. By ensuring that only one instance of a database manager exists at a time, my applications remained efficient, and my servers remained unburned.

That “We’re So Back” Moment

There’s a beautiful moment almost every developer experiences: the “we’re so back” moment when you realize you don’t have to brute-force your way through a problem because someone already solved it. It’s kind of like growing up and realizing that recipes exist for a reason. Your kitchen (and your app) will thank you.

Wrapping It All Up

So, what even are design patterns? They are proven solutions to recurring software problems, polished and shared so we don’t have to keep stumbling into the same traps. And how have I used them? By letting patterns like Singleton guide my designs toward flexibility, maintainability, and sanity. Whether in interviews or real-world code, understanding and applying design patterns separates the kitchen disasters from the Michelin-starred software.