What is the correct architectural solution for circular dependencies beyond forwardRef()?

Difficulty: 7/10

circular dependencies, module architecture, dependency injection

forwardRef() is a patch, not a fix. Circular dependencies are a design smell signaling that two services know too much about each other. The proper solutions are: extract shared logic into a third service, use events to decouple communication, merge the two services, or redesign responsibilities to eliminate the bidirectional dependency.

Architectural solutions for circular dependencies:

1
Extract shared logic — move mutually needed code into a third independent service that both can import without creating a cycle.
2
Use events — have one service emit an event via NestJS EventEmitter or a message bus that the other listens to, removing the direct reference.
3
Merge services — if two services always need each other, they may belong together as a single cohesive service.
4

Difficulty: 7/10

circular dependencies, module architecture, dependency injection

Architectural solutions for circular dependencies:

1
Extract shared logic — move mutually needed code into a third independent service that both can import without creating a cycle.
2
Use events — have one service emit an event via NestJS EventEmitter or a message bus that the other listens to, removing the direct reference.
3
Merge services — if two services always need each other, they may belong together as a single cohesive service.
4