Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.
In software engineering (or computer science), a design pattern is a general repeatable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design. A design pattern is not a finished design that can be transformed directly into code. It is a description or template for how to solve a problem that can be used in many different situations. Object-oriented design patterns typically show relationships and interactions between classes or objects, without specifying the final application classes or objects that are involved. Algorithms are not thought of as design patterns, since they solve computational problems rather than design problems.
Design patterns can be classified in terms of the underlying problem they solve.
Creational Patterns -- concern the process of object creation.
Abstract Factory
Provide an interface for creating families of related or dependent objects without specifying their concrete classes.
Builder
Separates the construction of a complex object from its representation so that several different representations can be created, depending on the needs of the program.
Factory Method
Define an interface for creating an object, but let subclasses decide which class to instantiate. Factory Method lets a class defer instantiation
Prototype
The Prototype pattern starts with an instantiated class and copies or clones it to make new instances. These instances can then be further tailored using their public methods.
Singleton
The Singleton pattern is a class of which there can be no more than one instance. It provides a single global point of access to that instance.
Structural Patterns -- describe how classes and objects can be combined to form larger structures.
Adapter
Convert the interface of a class into another interface clients expect.
Adapter lets classes work together that couldn't otherwise because of incompatible interfaces.
Bridge
Decouple an abstraction from its implementation so that the two can vary independently.
Composite
Compose objects into tree structures to represent part-whole hierarchies. Composite lets clients treat individual objects and Compositions of objects uniformly.
Decorator
Attach additional responsibilities to an object dynamically. Decorators provide a flexible alternative to subclassing for extending functionality.
Facade
Provide a unified interface to a set of interfaces in a subsystem. Façade defines a higher-level interface that makes the subsystem easier to use.
Flyweight
Use sharing to support large numbers of fine-grained objects efficiently.
Proxy
Provide a surrogate or placeholder for another object to control access
to it.
Behavioral Patterns -- characterize the ways in which classes or objects interact and distribute responsibility
Chain of Resp.
Avoid coupling the sender of a request to its receiver by giving more than one object a chance to handle the request. Chain the receiving objects and pass the request along the chain until an object handles it.
Command
Encapsulate a request as an object, thereby letting you parameterize clients with different requests, queue or log requests, and support undoable operations.
Interpreter
Given a language, define a representation for its grammar along with an interpreter that uses the representation to interpret sentences in the language.
Iterator
Provide a way to access the elements of an aggregate object sequentially without exposing its underlying representation.
Mediator
Define an object that encapsulates how a set of objects interact.
Mediator promotes loose coupling by keeping objects from referring to each other explicitly, and it lets you vary their interaction independently.
Memento
Without violating encapsulation, capture and externalize an object's internal state so that the object can be restored to this state later.
Observer
Define a one-to-many dependency between objects so that when one object changes state, all its dependents are notified and updated automatically.
State
Allow an object to alter its behavior when its internal state changes. The object will appear to change its class.
Strategy
Define a family of algorithms, encapsulate each one, and make them interchangeable. Strategy lets the algorithm vary independently from clients that use it.
Template Method
Define the skeleton of an algorithm in an operation, deferring some steps to subclasses. Template Method lets subclasses redefine certain steps of an algorithm without changing the algorithm's structure.
Visitor
Represent an operation to be performed on the elements of an object structure. Visitor lets you define a new operation without changing the classes of the elements on which it operates.