Explain the essence of monolithic architecture and its main features.

Monolithic architecture is an approach to building an application where all components and functional modules are combined into a single, monolithic program.

Main features:

• Single codebase: all code is in one project.
• Shared database: usually one database is used for the entire application.
• Shared runtime environment: the application is deployed and runs as a single unit.
• Ease of development in the initial stages: easier to start and quickly implement functionality.
• Scaling difficulties: the entire application must be scaled as a whole.
• Support and development challenges: as the codebase grows, it becomes more difficult to make changes without risking breaking something.

Example: a web application where the frontend, backend, and database access are implemented in one project and deployed together.