How would you answer an interview scenario involving microservices versus modular monolith in Cloud Architecture?

For an interview scenario involving microservices versus modular monolith, I would first clarify the business goal, scale, constraints, and the failure or quality attribute the interviewer wants to explore. Microservices deploy bounded capabilities independently, while a modular monolith maintains strong module boundaries inside one deployable application. In this scenario, a team of eight engineers proposes twenty microservices for a new product. Explain how you would challenge or validate the design. For production, start from domain and organizational needs, keep boundaries explicit, and choose independent services only where autonomy or scaling justifies them. I would then explain the main alternatives and tradeoffs, identify likely failure modes, and describe how I would validate the solution through testing, observability, security controls, and recovery or rollback planning.