Decorator
Trade a 2^N subclass table for N wrappers that share one interface, stack compression and encryption around a file source in any order, and spot the same nesting in `new BufferedReader(new FileReader(f))` and Python's `open()`.
Composite
Collapse a recursive `if isinstance(node, Folder)` into one `size()` that both files and folders answer, watch the type check leave the caller and become recursion on the container, and weigh the transparency-versus-safety cost of putting `add()` on every node.
Adapter
Wrap a vendor's `dispatch(to, body, opts)` so two hundred call sites keep calling `send(msg)`, watch the translation live entirely inside the wrapper, and tell it from a decorator by the one thing that differs: the interface changes, not the behaviour.
Proxy
Front an expensive or guarded object with a same-interface stand-in that decides when to create it, whether to allow the call, or whether a cached answer is enough, and spot the shape in JS `new Proxy`, ORM lazy loads, and gRPC stubs.
Facade
Route a handler's five service calls through one method so callers depend on one class instead of five, reach past it straight to a worker for the rare case the method skips, and split the front before it bloats into a god object.