Good Software Design Starts with Behaviour, Not Data Structures

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A DEV Community article argues that experienced software engineers prioritise understanding system behaviour over selecting data structures at the outset. Using a food delivery platform as an example, the piece illustrates how a single application can demand entirely different engineering approaches depending on the behaviour involved — such as fast retrieval, asynchronous processing, or real-time search suggestions. The author contrasts the mindset used in coding interviews, where efficiency of a data structure is the primary concern, with Low-Level Design thinking, where the question shifts to what the system must optimise. Each distinct behaviour, the article contends, creates a unique engineering problem that should guide design decisions rather than predetermined tool choices. The core takeaway is that applications are best understood as collections of behaviours, not collections of classes or data structures.

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