Design a Saga Orchestrator for a Cross-Border Payments Flow
Overview
What this challenge is about.
Model the payment flow as a saga: 6 forward steps + their compensations. Choose between orchestration (Temporal) and choreography (event-driven via Kafka) and defend the choice. Implement using Temporal (or Step Functions if defended). Cover the tricky bits: FX-rate-locked compensation, debit-already-reversed idempotency, partial-success notification policy. Run chaos tests for 12 failure scenarios (each step failing alone + 4 combo failures). Deliver source code, a 10-page design writeup including orchestration-vs-choreography decision, and a chaos-test report.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Replace a fragile 6-service distributed transaction with a saga orchestrator that handles 12 named failure scenarios with automated compensation.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Decide between orchestration and choreography based on real flow constraints
- Implement compensation logic that respects idempotency and partial-success cases
- Validate saga correctness with chaos tests, not just happy-path tests
- Document failure-handling decisions in a form ops + on-call will trust
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
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Roles this prepares you for.
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