Chain of Responsibility — To Use It or Not To Use It.

You Don’t Know the CoR Pattern

All design patterns share a common goal: isolating code within programs. Each pattern uses abstractions to isolate changes, ensuring that modifying one part of the code doesn’t necessarily require changes in unrelated parts.

This article provides insights to help you decide whether to use the Chain of Responsibility pattern.

A brief introduction to chain of responsibility in 50 words or less:

The Chain of Responsibility is a behavioral design pattern that passes a request along a chain of handlers until one of them handles it. The chain is extensible, and each handler is isolated.

When Not to Use It.

The CoR pattern captivated me when I first discovered it. I used it to decompose complex business requirements into a chain of handlers.

However, after implementing CoR, I realized that I had misapplied the pattern. Instead of simplifying the system, it introduced unnecessary complexity. The chain became cumbersome, harder to debug, and did not offer the flexibility I anticipated.