Mastering SOLID Principles in Java: Real-World Examples and Best Practices for Scalable Code

A Practical, Code‑Dense Tour of the SOLID Principles in Java By someone who has spent too many Friday nights undoing “harmless” feature requests. Table of Contents Introduction: Why SOLID Still Matters S — Single‑Responsibility Principle O — Open/Closed Principle 3.1 Strategy vs. Giant switch 3.2 Plug‑in Files with ServiceLoader 3.3 Taxes Without Tears (Chain of Responsibility) 3.4 Decorators for Logging, Encryption, & Friends 3.5 Feature Flags with Functional Interfaces L — Liskov Substitution Principle I — Interface Segregation Principle D — Dependency Inversion Principle SOLID Sanity Checklist Final Thoughts: Future‑You Deserves Better Introduction: Why SOLID Still Matters “But we’re microservices now, SOLID is for 2000‑era JavaBeans!” Cute. The truth is: each microservice can still rot into a tiny monolith—hard to test, risky to change, impossible to extend. SOLID is your mold‑resistant paint. Below is a full‑fat walkthrough. Every code snippet is production‑ish and comes with its matching anti‑pattern so you can recognise the smell before your code review does. S — Single‑Responsibility Principle “A class should have one, and only one, reason to change.”

Apr 27, 2025 - 19:48
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Mastering SOLID Principles in Java: Real-World Examples and Best Practices for Scalable Code

A Practical, Code‑Dense Tour of the SOLID Principles in Java

By someone who has spent too many Friday nights undoing “harmless” feature requests.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction: Why SOLID Still Matters
  2. S — Single‑Responsibility Principle
  3. O — Open/Closed Principle
    • 3.1 Strategy vs. Giant switch
    • 3.2 Plug‑in Files with ServiceLoader
    • 3.3 Taxes Without Tears (Chain of Responsibility)
    • 3.4 Decorators for Logging, Encryption, & Friends
    • 3.5 Feature Flags with Functional Interfaces
  4. L — Liskov Substitution Principle
  5. I — Interface Segregation Principle
  6. D — Dependency Inversion Principle
  7. SOLID Sanity Checklist
  8. Final Thoughts: Future‑You Deserves Better

Introduction: Why SOLID Still Matters

“But we’re microservices now, SOLID is for 2000‑era JavaBeans!”

Cute. The truth is: each microservice can still rot into a tiny monolith—hard to test, risky to change, impossible to extend. SOLID is your mold‑resistant paint.

Below is a full‑fat walkthrough. Every code snippet is production‑ish and comes with its matching anti‑pattern so you can recognise the smell before your code review does.

S — Single‑Responsibility Principle

“A class should have one, and only one, reason to change.”