Algorithms vs Architecture

There are many facets to software design. Some, like user-interface design, are apparent to the end user. Others take place almost entirely under the hood. These are the bones on which the software is built.

Two significant under-the-hood aspects are algorithms and software architecture.

Algorithms form a major strand of computer science. They are concerned with
the nitty-gritty of getting the computer to do stuff. The major aspects of an
algorithm include: what it does, its domain of valid inputs, and its time- and
space-efficiency.

Software architecture, on the other hand, is concerned with the high-level structure and conventions of a software system, and is more of a topic for industry than academia. Good architectural choices contribute to the overall performance, resilience, and extensibility of a system.

We need both! And interestingly, you neglect either one at your peril.

For example, recently when we noticed a significant slow-down in performance the issue turned out to be an architecture-algorithm interaction. While the algorithm was O(n^2) in time, an imperfection in the architecture led to it being executed as each item was added to the structure, making it effectively O(n^3), and correspondingly sluggish.

As usual, when the problem is tricky to track down, it is often due to the interaction of two separate-seeming factors.