Backend
Soft Deletes: The Feature That Costs More Than It Saves
Soft deletes look like a simple safety net, but they silently corrupt your schema, poison your queries, and break your constraints — here's what to use instead.
·5 min read
Tags
backend
35 articles
Backend
Graceful Shutdown in Node.js Production Services
Most Node.js services silently drop in-flight requests on every deploy. Here's how to handle SIGTERM correctly, drain connections, and exit cleanly in Kubernetes.
·5 min read
Engineering
Runtime Type Safety with Zod: Validating at Every Boundary
TypeScript's type system stops at compile time — Zod closes the gap by validating data at the runtime boundaries where it actually matters.
·4 min read
Backend
HTTP Caching Demystified: Cache-Control, ETags, and CDN Strategies
A practical guide to HTTP caching headers — what each directive actually does, when to use ETags, and how to stop fighting your CDN.
·4 min read
Backend
Building Type-Safe GraphQL APIs with Code Generation
A practical guide to achieving end-to-end type safety in GraphQL applications using schema-first code generation, covering resolver typing, client-side query types, and eliminating runtime type mismatches between frontend and backend.
·3 min read
Backend
Database Connection Pooling: Tuning for Performance Under Load
A deep dive into database connection pool configuration, covering pool sizing formulas, connection lifecycle management, health checking strategies, and diagnosing pool exhaustion under production traffic patterns.
·4 min read
Backend
Rate Limiting Strategies for APIs: Algorithms and Implementation
A deep dive into rate limiting algorithms including token bucket, sliding window, and leaky bucket with distributed implementations using Redis and practical middleware patterns.
·4 min read
Backend
Database Migration Strategies for Zero-Downtime Deployments
Implement database schema migrations that don't require downtime using expand-contract patterns, backward-compatible changes, and phased rollouts that keep your application serving traffic throughout every deployment.
·5 min read
Backend
Designing Idempotent APIs: Safely Retrying Failed Requests
Build idempotent API endpoints that handle retries safely using idempotency keys, database constraints, and state machines with TypeScript examples covering payment processing, order creation, and webhook delivery.
·4 min read
Security
API Security Beyond Authentication: Rate Limiting, Input Validation, and Defense in Depth
Implement comprehensive API security layers including rate limiting, request validation, output encoding, security headers, and audit logging with practical TypeScript middleware examples that go beyond simple authentication.
·5 min read
Backend
Connection Pooling Strategies for High-Throughput Applications
Configure and optimize database connection pools for high-throughput Node.js applications with practical examples covering pool sizing, health checks, connection lifecycle management, and common pitfalls that cause pool exhaustion.
·4 min read
Backend
Building Robust Webhook Delivery Systems
Design webhook delivery infrastructure that handles retries with exponential backoff, signature verification, idempotency guarantees, delivery logging, and endpoint health monitoring for reliable event notification.
·4 min read
Backend
Designing Efficient Pagination for Large Datasets
Compare offset, cursor, and keyset pagination strategies with practical implementations showing performance characteristics, trade-offs, and when each approach fits your API design.
·4 min read
Tutorials
Building a GraphQL Server From Scratch
A step-by-step tutorial for building a GraphQL server with TypeScript — covering schema design, resolvers, dataloaders for N+1 prevention, authentication, error handling, and deployment patterns.
·4 min read
Backend
Scaling WebSocket Connections Across Servers
How to scale WebSocket connections beyond a single server — covering sticky sessions, pub/sub fan-out with Redis, connection state management, and handling reconnection gracefully at scale.
·5 min read
Tutorials
Building a Rate Limiter From Scratch
A step-by-step tutorial for building rate limiters using the token bucket, sliding window, and fixed window algorithms — with TypeScript implementations, Redis integration, and production deployment patterns.
·4 min read
Backend
Database Transaction Isolation Levels Explained
A practical breakdown of read uncommitted, read committed, repeatable read, and serializable isolation levels — with real examples of the anomalies each one prevents and the performance trade-offs involved.
·5 min read
Backend
gRPC vs REST: When to Use What
A practical comparison of gRPC and REST for backend services — covering performance characteristics, developer experience, streaming capabilities, and the tradeoffs that determine which protocol fits your use case.
·4 min read
Backend
Redis Data Structures Beyond Key-Value
Explore Redis data structures beyond simple strings — sorted sets for leaderboards, streams for event logs, HyperLogLog for cardinality, and bitmaps for feature flags.
·4 min read
Security
Cross-Site Request Forgery Protection Strategies
A comprehensive guide to understanding and preventing CSRF attacks — covering token-based protection, SameSite cookies, double-submit patterns, and framework-specific implementations.
·5 min read
Architecture
Event Sourcing in Practice: Patterns and Pitfalls
A practical guide to event sourcing — when to use it, how to implement event stores, build projections, handle schema evolution, and avoid common pitfalls.
·4 min read
Tutorials
Building a REST API with Go and Chi
A hands-on tutorial for building a production-ready REST API with Go and Chi — covering routing, middleware, JSON handling, error responses, and graceful shutdown.
·6 min read
Backend
Data Modeling Patterns for Document Databases
Practical data modeling strategies for MongoDB and document databases — covering embedding vs referencing, denormalization tradeoffs, and schema evolution patterns.
·4 min read
Backend
Database Connection Management in Production
How to configure and monitor database connection pools — covering pool sizing, leak detection, failover handling, and common misconfiguration pitfalls.
·5 min read
Architecture
API Gateway Patterns for Microservices
How API gateways handle routing, authentication, rate limiting, and response aggregation — with patterns for building or choosing the right gateway for your architecture.
·5 min read
Artificial Intelligence
Introduction to Machine Learning for Backend Engineers
A practical introduction to machine learning concepts that backend engineers need when integrating ML models into production applications.
·4 min read
Backend
Rate Limiting Algorithms: Token Bucket, Sliding Window, and Beyond
A deep dive into rate limiting algorithms with implementations, trade-offs, and guidance on choosing the right approach for your API.
·4 min read
Backend
Idempotency in API Design: Safe Retries for Distributed Systems
Network failures mean requests are retried — idempotent API design ensures that processing the same request twice produces the same result, preventing duplicate charges and orders.
·4 min read
Backend
API Versioning Strategies: When and How to Version
Every API evolves — the question is whether you version through URL paths, headers, or query parameters, and how you handle breaking changes without breaking clients.
·3 min read
Backend
Connection Pooling: Why Every Backend Needs It
Opening a new database connection per request is a silent performance killer — connection pools solve this with a managed set of reusable connections.
·3 min read
Architecture
GraphQL vs REST: Choosing the Right API Style
GraphQL isn't a REST replacement — it's an alternative with different trade-offs that matter depending on your client complexity, team size, and data shape.
·3 min read
Backend
WebSocket Fundamentals for Backend Developers
When HTTP polling isn't enough — a practical guide to WebSocket connections, message patterns, and production concerns like reconnection and scaling.
·3 min read
Backend
API Rate Limiting Patterns That Scale
Token buckets, sliding windows, and distributed rate limiting — practical patterns to protect your API without degrading the experience for legitimate users.
·3 min read
Backend
Caching Strategies for Web Applications
From HTTP headers to Redis patterns, a practical guide to caching layers that reduce latency and database load without serving stale data.
·3 min read
Backend
REST API Design: Beyond the Basics
Once you know the HTTP verbs, the real challenge begins — pagination, filtering, error formats, and versioning patterns that make APIs a pleasure to consume.
·3 min read