Introduction
Clean Architecture is one of those concepts that sounds complex at first but becomes natural once you start applying it. In this post I'll show you how I structure my .NET projects and why I think every backend developer should know this pattern.
The Layers
A Clean Architecture project is divided into four main layers:
- Domain — your entities and business rules. No dependencies on anything external.
- Application — your use cases. Depends only on Domain.
- Infrastructure — database, external services. Implements interfaces defined in Application.
- Api — your controllers and HTTP layer. Depends on Application.
Why it matters
The main benefit is that your business logic is completely isolated from frameworks, databases, and external services. This makes your code easier to test, maintain, and evolve.
Conclusion
Clean Architecture takes some getting used to but the long term benefits are well worth it. In a future post I'll show you a real implementation with .NET and Entity Framework.