EdTech Platform Architecture, Lessons from Real Builds

EdTech has unique technical requirements that general-purpose web app architecture doesn't prepare you for. Real-time collaboration, video delivery at scale, progress tracking across complex learning paths, accessibility compliance under Section 508 and WCAG 2.1, the combination creates architectural challenges that only become apparent when you're building for real educational institutions. Here's what actually matters when architecting an EdTech platform for the US market. Concurrent Users During Scheduled Events General SaaS products have relatively predictable traffic. EdTech platforms get slammed during scheduled events: the Monday morning class login spike, the Sunday night homework rush, the exam period where every student in a district hits the platform simultaneously. Your architecture needs to handle 10x normal traffic for short, predictable bursts. The implications: Horizontal scaling must be automatic and fast. ECS with Application Auto Scaling configured to scale based on