Despite their near universal usage, patterns have their share of criticism too. The most common arguments against them are as follows:

• Patterns compensate for the missing language features: Peter Norvig found that 16 of the 23 patterns in design patterns were invisible or simpler in dynamic languages such as Lisp or Python. For instance, as functions are already objects in Python, it would be unnecessary to create separate classes to implement strategy patterns.

• Patterns repeat best practices: Many patterns are essentially formalizations of best practices, such as separation of concerns, and could seem redundant.
• Patterns can lead to over-engineering: Implementing the pattern might be less efficient and excessive compared to a simpler solution.