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A design pattern is a software engineering terms and is used to describe a reusable solution to solve common problems in software design. A design pattern doesn’t provide you with code per se, but is more a method of development, or template, to solve your problem.

Design patterns speed up the development of a project by providing a proven and tested way of doing things. Reusing design patterns in your project helps to prevent any unforeseen problems, and provides a common ground for developers working on your project who are familiar with the patterns. This can help to improve your code readability and consistency of methods, which all help to provide a good software product.

Imagine you introduce a new developer to your project. If your current developers can say that the X part of the system uses the Decorator pattern, both developers have just saved a lot of time in teaching/learning curve, because the developers know what that means. It’s their ‘geek speak’ and allows them to explain a somewhat complicated concept very quickly.

My point is, if you want a future in the software industry, you need to be fluent in this geek speak so that you too understand these terms for quick introductions to new or old projects. What follows is examples of the common design patterns in software engineering with easy to understand examples for each pattern to help you learn and understand the concepts quickly.