Deep dives into backend development, system design, and distributed systems.
21 articles
Learn how distributed tracing works and how to implement it. Covers trace IDs, spans, OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, and how to find performance bottlenecks in microservices.
Learn how the saga pattern handles distributed transactions in microservices. Covers choreography vs orchestration, compensating transactions, and real examples.
Learn what idempotency means in API design and why it matters for payments, retries, and distributed systems. With practical implementation patterns.
Learn how Content Delivery Networks work, when to use them, and how they speed up your app globally. Covers edge servers, caching, and CDN providers like Cloudflare.
Learn how service discovery works in microservices. Covers client-side vs server-side discovery, Consul, etcd, and Kubernetes DNS with practical examples.
Learn what an API gateway does, when to use one, and how to set it up. Covers routing, authentication, rate limiting, and tools like Kong, AWS API Gateway, and Traefik.
Learn how JSON Web Tokens work, when to use them, and the security mistakes developers make. Covers signing algorithms, refresh tokens, and Python/Go examples.
Learn how database sharding works, when to use it, and common strategies. Covers horizontal partitioning, shard keys, and challenges with real examples.
Learn what the CAP theorem means in practice: why distributed systems must choose between consistency and availability when a network partition occurs.
Learn how the circuit breaker pattern prevents cascading failures in distributed systems. With Python examples and real-world use cases from Netflix.
Learn how to implement rate limiting with Redis. Covers token bucket, fixed window, and sliding window algorithms with Python and Go examples.
Learn how message queues work and when to use Kafka vs RabbitMQ. Covers async processing, event streaming, and real-world use cases with examples.
Learn REST API design best practices: URL structure, HTTP methods, status codes, versioning, and error handling. Build APIs developers love to use.
Learn how database indexes work, when to add them, and common mistakes. Covers B-tree indexes, composite indexes, and when indexes hurt performance.
Learn how Redis caching works, when to use it, and common patterns like cache-aside, write-through, and TTL. With Python and Go examples.
Learn the difference between vertical and horizontal scaling. Understand trade-offs, real costs, and when each strategy makes sense for your system.
Understand the OSI model's 7 layers with simple explanations. Learn how data moves through a network and why this matters for backend developers.
Learn the difference between TCP, UDP, HTTP, gRPC, and WebSockets. Practical guide on picking the right protocol for your backend system.
Learn how load balancers distribute traffic across servers. Covers round robin, least connections, consistent hashing, and when to use each.
Learn how DNS translates domain names to IP addresses step by step. Covers DNS resolution, record types, caching, and why it matters for system design.
Learn how consistent hashing distributes data across servers with minimal reshuffling. Used by Cassandra, DynamoDB, and Redis Cluster.