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YeboLearn Architecture: Built for Africa, Scaled for the World

Executive Summary

YeboLearn's architecture isn't just modern—it's future-proof. Built on cloud-native principles with multi-tenant isolation, microservices architecture, and AI-first design, we deliver enterprise-grade reliability at startup speed. While competitors struggle with monolithic legacy systems, we scale infinitely, deploy instantly, and innovate continuously.

System Architecture Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         CLIENTS                             │
├──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┤
│ Web (PWA)    │ Mobile (PWA) │ API Clients  │ Integrations │
└──────┬───────┴──────┬───────┴──────┬───────┴──────┬───────┘
       │              │              │              │
┌──────▼──────────────▼──────────────▼──────────────▼───────┐
│                    CDN (Cloudflare)                        │
│                 Static Assets + DDoS Protection            │
└──────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────┘

┌──────────────────────▼─────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  LOAD BALANCER (GCP)                       │
└──────┬────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────┘
       │                                    │
┌──────▼──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────▼────────────────┐
│      API GATEWAY            │ │    WebSocket Server        │
│   (Kong / Express.js)       │ │     (Socket.io)           │
└──────┬──────────────────────┘ └──────────┬────────────────┘
       │                                    │
┌──────▼────────────────────────────────────▼────────────────┐
│                    MICROSERVICES LAYER                      │
├──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┤
│   Core API   │   AI Service │ Payment Svc  │ Notification │
│  (Node.js)   │   (Python)   │  (Node.js)   │  (Node.js)   │
└──────┬───────┴──────┬───────┴──────┬───────┴──────┬───────┘
       │              │              │              │
┌──────▼──────────────▼──────────────▼──────────────▼───────┐
│                    DATA LAYER                              │
├─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┤
│ PostgreSQL  │    Redis    │   S3/GCS    │   Elasticsearch │
│  (Primary)  │   (Cache)   │  (Storage)  │    (Search)     │
└─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┘

Multi-Tenant Architecture

Tenant Isolation Strategy

Database Level Isolation

sql
-- Schema-based multi-tenancy
CREATE SCHEMA tenant_001;
CREATE SCHEMA tenant_002;

-- Row-level security
ALTER TABLE students ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;
CREATE POLICY tenant_isolation ON students
    USING (tenant_id = current_setting('app.tenant_id'));

Why Schema-Based Multi-Tenancy?

  • Complete data isolation between schools
  • Easy backup/restore per tenant
  • Performance optimization per school size
  • Compliance ready for data residency
  • Cost efficient versus separate databases

Tenant Provisioning Flow

  1. Sign-up: New school registers
  2. Provisioning: Automated schema creation (<30 seconds)
  3. Configuration: School-specific settings applied
  4. Data Seeding: Default data populated
  5. Activation: School ready for use

Scaling Strategy

  • Small Schools (<500 students): Shared infrastructure
  • Medium Schools (500-5000): Dedicated resources
  • Large Schools (5000+): Isolated deployment
  • Enterprise (Multi-school): Private cloud option

Microservices Architecture

Service Decomposition

Core API Service

Technology: Node.js 18+, Express.js, TypeScript Responsibilities:

  • Student management
  • Academic operations
  • Attendance tracking
  • Basic CRUD operations
  • Business logic

Why Node.js:

  • Non-blocking I/O perfect for concurrent requests
  • JavaScript everywhere (frontend + backend)
  • Massive ecosystem
  • Fast development cycle

AI Service

Technology: Python, FastAPI, Google Gemini Responsibilities:

  • Natural language processing
  • Predictive analytics
  • Content generation
  • Image recognition
  • ML model serving

Why Python:

  • Best AI/ML libraries
  • Google Gemini SDK
  • Data science ecosystem
  • Easy model deployment

Payment Service

Technology: Node.js, Stripe SDK, MTN API Responsibilities:

  • Payment processing
  • Reconciliation
  • Refund management
  • Payment gateway abstraction
  • PCI compliance

Isolation Benefits:

  • PCI compliance scope reduction
  • Independent scaling
  • Provider-specific optimizations
  • Fault isolation

Notification Service

Technology: Node.js, Bull Queue, Twilio Responsibilities:

  • Email delivery
  • SMS dispatch
  • Push notifications
  • WhatsApp messages
  • Delivery tracking

Queue-Based Architecture:

javascript
// Reliable message delivery
await notificationQueue.add('send-sms', {
  to: parentPhone,
  message: 'Your child is absent today',
  priority: 'high',
  retry: 3
});

Service Communication

Synchronous: REST APIs

typescript
// Internal service calls
const studentData = await coreAPI.get('/students/123');
const aiInsights = await aiService.post('/analyze', studentData);

Asynchronous: Message Queue

typescript
// Event-driven architecture
eventBus.publish('student.enrolled', {
  studentId: 123,
  schoolId: 456,
  timestamp: Date.now()
});

Real-time: WebSockets

typescript
// Live updates
socket.emit('attendance.marked', {
  studentId: 123,
  status: 'present'
});

Infrastructure Architecture

Container Orchestration

Docker Containerization

dockerfile
# Optimized multi-stage build
FROM node:18-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --only=production

FROM node:18-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=builder /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY . .
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Google Cloud Run Deployment

Why Cloud Run:

  • Serverless containers
  • Automatic scaling (0 to 1000 instances)
  • Pay per request
  • Built-in load balancing
  • Zero DevOps overhead

Scaling Configuration:

yaml
apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: yebolearn-api
spec:
  template:
    metadata:
      annotations:
        run.googleapis.com/execution-environment: gen2
        autoscaling.knative.dev/minScale: "2"
        autoscaling.knative.dev/maxScale: "1000"
    spec:
      containerConcurrency: 1000
      timeoutSeconds: 300

Database Architecture

PostgreSQL 15 Configuration

sql
-- Performance optimizations
max_connections = 200
shared_buffers = 4GB
effective_cache_size = 12GB
work_mem = 20MB
maintenance_work_mem = 1GB

-- Multi-tenant optimizations
max_locks_per_transaction = 256
max_pred_locks_per_transaction = 256

Connection Pooling

javascript
// PgBouncer configuration
const pool = new Pool({
  max: 20, // per service
  idleTimeoutMillis: 30000,
  connectionTimeoutMillis: 2000,
});

Read Replica Strategy

  • Primary: All writes
  • Replica 1: Reporting queries
  • Replica 2: Analytics workloads
  • Replica 3: Backup and disaster recovery

Caching Architecture

Redis 7 Implementation

javascript
// Multi-tier caching
const cacheStrategy = {
  L1: 'Application Memory (30s)', // Hot data
  L2: 'Redis (5 min)',            // Frequent queries
  L3: 'Database',                 // Source of truth
};

Cache Patterns

javascript
// Cache-aside pattern
async function getStudent(id) {
  // Check cache first
  let student = await redis.get(`student:${id}`);
  if (!student) {
    // Cache miss - fetch from DB
    student = await db.query('SELECT * FROM students WHERE id = $1', [id]);
    await redis.setex(`student:${id}`, 300, JSON.stringify(student));
  }
  return student;
}

Security Architecture

Defense in Depth

Layer 1: CDN/WAF (Cloudflare)

  • DDoS protection
  • Bot mitigation
  • Rate limiting
  • Geo-blocking
  • SSL/TLS termination

Layer 2: API Gateway

  • Authentication (JWT)
  • Authorization (RBAC)
  • Request validation
  • API versioning
  • Throttling

Layer 3: Application

  • Input sanitization
  • SQL injection prevention
  • XSS protection
  • CSRF tokens
  • Content Security Policy

Layer 4: Database

  • Encrypted at rest
  • Encrypted in transit
  • Row-level security
  • Audit logging
  • Backup encryption

Authentication & Authorization

JWT Implementation

javascript
// Token structure
{
  "sub": "user_123",
  "tenant": "school_456",
  "role": "teacher",
  "permissions": ["read:students", "write:grades"],
  "exp": 1234567890
}

RBAC Model

javascript
const roles = {
  superAdmin: ['*'],
  schoolAdmin: ['manage:school', 'view:all'],
  teacher: ['manage:class', 'view:students'],
  parent: ['view:child'],
  student: ['view:self']
};

Performance Architecture

Optimization Strategies

API Response Optimization

javascript
// GraphQL for precise data fetching
const query = `
  query GetStudent($id: ID!) {
    student(id: $id) {
      name
      grades { subject score }
    }
  }
`;

Database Query Optimization

sql
-- Optimized indexes
CREATE INDEX idx_students_school_class
ON students(tenant_id, school_id, class_id);

-- Materialized views for reports
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW daily_attendance_summary AS
SELECT date, class_id, COUNT(*) as present
FROM attendance
WHERE status = 'present'
GROUP BY date, class_id;

Frontend Optimization

  • Code splitting by route
  • Lazy loading components
  • Image optimization (WebP)
  • Service worker caching
  • CDN for static assets

Performance Metrics

Target SLAs

MetricTargetCurrentIndustry Average
API Response Time<200ms145ms500ms
Page Load Time<2s1.3s4s
Database Query<100ms67ms250ms
Uptime99.9%99.95%99%
Error Rate<0.1%0.03%1%

Scalability Architecture

Horizontal Scaling

Auto-scaling Rules

yaml
# CPU-based scaling
- metricType: cpu
  targetUtilization: 70

# Request-based scaling
- metricType: request-count
  targetValue: 100

# Custom metrics
- metricType: queue-depth
  targetValue: 50

Vertical Scaling

  • Database: Up to 64 vCPUs, 256GB RAM
  • Cache: Up to 100GB Redis cluster
  • Storage: Unlimited object storage
  • Compute: Serverless (infinite)

Geographic Distribution

Primary Region: South Africa (Johannesburg)
├── CDN PoPs: 200+ global locations
├── Backup Region: Europe (Frankfurt)
└── Disaster Recovery: US (Virginia)

Monitoring & Observability

Monitoring Stack

Metrics: Prometheus + Grafana
Logs: ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana)
Traces: Jaeger
APM: New Relic
Uptime: StatusPage

Key Metrics Tracked

  • Request rate and latency
  • Error rates by endpoint
  • Database connection pool
  • Cache hit/miss ratio
  • Queue depth and processing time
  • AI model inference time
  • Payment success rate

Alerting Rules

yaml
- name: High Error Rate
  condition: error_rate > 1%
  action: page_oncall

- name: Database Connection Pool
  condition: available_connections < 10
  action: scale_database

- name: API Latency
  condition: p95_latency > 500ms
  action: investigate

Disaster Recovery

Backup Strategy

  • Database: Continuous replication + hourly snapshots
  • Files: Real-time S3 sync with versioning
  • Code: Git with automated deployments
  • Configuration: Encrypted in version control

Recovery Objectives

  • RTO (Recovery Time): <1 hour
  • RPO (Recovery Point): <15 minutes
  • Backup Retention: 90 days
  • Disaster Recovery Test: Monthly

Competitive Architecture Advantages

AspectYeboLearnTypical Competitor
ArchitectureMicroservicesMonolithic
DeploymentServerless/ContainersVMs/Bare metal
ScalingAuto-scalingManual
Multi-tenancySchema isolationShared tables
DatabasePostgreSQL 15MySQL 5.7
CachingRedis clusterNone/Basic
Message QueueRabbitMQ/RedisNone
API DesignRESTful + GraphQLSOAP/Basic REST
MonitoringFull observabilityBasic logging
SecurityDefense in depthPerimeter only

Architecture Evolution Roadmap

2025 Q1-Q2

  • GraphQL federation
  • Event sourcing for audit
  • CQRS implementation
  • Edge computing capabilities

2025 Q3-Q4

  • Kubernetes migration
  • Service mesh (Istio)
  • Distributed tracing
  • Global multi-region

2026

  • Blockchain integration
  • Federated learning
  • Edge AI inference
  • Quantum-ready encryption

The Architecture Advantage

YeboLearn's architecture isn't just technically superior—it's business transformative. While competitors struggle with:

  • Monolithic complexity: We deploy features in minutes
  • Scaling bottlenecks: We scale infinitely
  • Security vulnerabilities: We implement defense in depth
  • Performance issues: We deliver sub-second responses
  • Maintenance nightmares: We achieve 99.95% uptime

Key Takeaway

YeboLearn is built on the same architecture principles as Netflix, Uber, and Airbnb—proven patterns that scale to millions of users. But unlike Silicon Valley companies, we've optimized specifically for African conditions: low bandwidth, mobile-first, offline-capable, and cost-efficient.

This isn't just good architecture—it's the only architecture that can deliver on Africa's educational transformation.

YeboLearn - Empowering African Education