Architecting Elixir Applications: GenServers and Code Organization

Many Elixir developers fall into the trap of using GenServers for everything, leading to over-engineered and tightly coupled codebases. Understanding when to leverage these powerful processes—and when to stick to simple, pure modules—is key to building scalable applications. In this text-only course, you will learn how to make deliberate architectural decisions in Elixir. You will transition from treating GenServers as default code organization blocks to using them strategically for state, concurrency, and serialization. What you'll learn: - Understand the core concepts of Elixir processes, state preservation, and OTP behaviors. - Identify when to use a GenServer for state management versus simple functional modules. - Design robust supervision trees and understand dynamic process supervision patterns. - Avoid common anti-patterns like bottlenecking and over-concurrency in your application design. - Test GenServers effectively using modern ExUnit techniques and mock-free strategies. - Apply modern observability patterns to monitor process health and system load. The course begins with foundational definitions of Elixir's process model before diving into practical scenarios, comparing stateful processes with stateless modules, and demonstrating clean architectural layouts through written explanations and clear code snippets. This course is designed for beginner to intermediate Elixir developers who want to improve their application design skills; basic familiarity with Elixir syntax is recommended to get started. Start writing cleaner, more idiomatic Elixir code today.