ASP.NET Core Web API Interview Question #178

What is Clean Architecture in the context of Web APIs?

Senior API Design, Architecture, Scalability & Production Scenarios Senior Advanced

Quick Interview Answer

Clean Architecture places business rules and use cases toward the center while infrastructure and delivery mechanisms such as ASP.NET Core, EF Core, and external APIs remain at outer boundaries.

Detailed Explanation

Clean Architecture places business rules and use cases toward the center while infrastructure and delivery mechanisms such as ASP.NET Core, EF Core, and external APIs remain at outer boundaries.

The goal is controlled dependencies and testable business behavior, not creating layers for their own sake. Small applications may need fewer abstractions than large, long-lived systems.

Code Example

// Conceptual dependency direction:
Api -> Application <- Infrastructure
          |
        Domain

// Domain/Application should not need ControllerBase
// or HTTP-specific result types.