All 11 Design Patterns in C# questions
More in Design Patterns in C#
How do you implement a thread-safe Singleton pattern in modern C# using Lazy<T>? How would you implement the Strategy pattern in C# using either interfaces or delegates? How does the Repository pattern abstract data access, and what interface typically defines its contract? How would you implement the Decorator pattern in C# to add behavior to an object without modifying its original class? How would you implement the Observer pattern in C# using events, versus using the IObservable<T>/IObserver<T> interfaces from System? How would you implement the Unit of Work pattern alongside the Repository pattern to coordinate multiple repository changes within a single transaction? How would you implement the CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation) pattern's basic structure in a C# application using MediatR-style handlers? How would you implement the Builder pattern using method chaining (a fluent API) to construct a complex object step by step? How would you implement the Chain of Responsibility pattern in C# to process a request through a series of independent handlers? What are design patterns, and how are the Singleton, Adapter, and Strategy patterns typically implemented in C#?
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How does the Factory Method pattern work in C#, and what problem does it solve?

Beginner

Answer

A Factory Method encapsulates object-creation logic behind a method (often on a base class or interface) that subclasses or implementations override to decide WHICH concrete type to instantiate — this decouples the calling code from needing to know or reference specific concrete classes directly.
public abstract class ShapeFactory {
  public abstract IShape CreateShape();
}
public class CircleFactory : ShapeFactory {
  public override IShape CreateShape() => new Circle();
}
Real-world example Building a document-processing system where different factories create different parser implementations depending on file type.

Common follow-ups: How does the Factory Method pattern differ from the more general Abstract Factory pattern?

Interfaces & Abstract Classes
All 11 Design Patterns in C# questions