It's hard for me to give you a direct answer to how long it takes (and besides, there's a lot here that's helpful already), so instead, here's how I try to unde

It's hard for me to give you a direct answer to how long it takes (and besides, there's a lot here that's helpful already), so instead, here's how I try to understand new architecture/code-bases. I start by drawing it out. At whatever level I'm familiar enough with and then get someone's opinion on my architecture diagram. I do this a few times and it really accelerates my understanding of anything new. It turns the problem of understanding the codebase to a problem of first mapping it. Once it's been mapped, you can familiarise yourself with the various components you've mapped out. Hope this helps! And good luck :-)