Building a Scalable Booking System: From Manual Scheduling to 24/7 Automation

Building a Scalable Booking System: From Manual Scheduling to 24/7 Automation The Problem Last year, I was hired to build a booking system for a growing network of barbershops in Portugal. The initial requirements seemed straightforward: let customers book appointments online. But as the system scaled from 5 shops to 50+, we encountered challenges that pushed us to architect a much more complex solution than anticipated. Initial Architecture: The MVP We started with a tr...