Browse Java Design Patterns & Enterprise Application Architecture

Reducing Tight Coupling with the Mediator Pattern

Use Mediator in Java to reduce peer-to-peer awareness without hiding the collaboration rules that still need to be designed explicitly.

On this page

Mediator reduces tight coupling by replacing many peer-to-peer references with one coordination dependency. That can make the collaboration graph far easier to understand.

What Actually Gets Reduced

Without a mediator:

  • component A knows B and C
  • component B knows A and D
  • component C knows A and D

With a mediator:

  • each component knows the mediator
  • the mediator owns the rules for who affects whom

That does not remove complexity. It relocates it into one explicit place.

Review Rule

Mediator is a win when the interaction rules become clearer after centralization. If they become harder to test or reason about, the design may be too centralized.

Revised on Thursday, April 23, 2026