Backend Development

Backend development is the server-side work behind an application: APIs, business logic, databases, queues and background jobs. Backend engineers pick languages such as Java, Python, Node.js or C#, decide how data is stored and how services talk to each other, and keep it all fast and correct under load. Most of the hard calls are trade-offs, such as SQL against NoSQL or a monolith against microservices.

177 articles

22/03/2023 13 min read

How to Profile and Speed Up Python Code: cProfile, py-spy, lru_cache

Find the slow line before you change anything. Use cProfile, line_profiler, and py-spy to locate the hotspot, then…
05/03/2023 10 min read

Streams API Part 3: Parallel Streams and Pitfalls

Executive Summary: Parallel streams split work across the shared ForkJoinPool, and they only help under specific conditions. I…
28/02/2023 11 min read

Message Queues in System Design: Delivery Guarantees and Dead Letters

Message queues in system design: the at-least-once vs exactly-once delivery comparison, message ordering, and the dead letter queue…
22/02/2023 13 min read

SQLAlchemy 2.0 Tutorial: ORM, Sessions, and select()

Build typed ORM models, manage sessions and transactions, query with select(), and count your queries to catch the…
04/02/2023 10 min read

Streams API Part 2: reduce, collect, and Collectors

Executive Summary: Java streams end in a value through reduce or collect. I cover reduce with an identity…
18/01/2023 13 min read

Python GIL Explained: Threads vs Processes

Run one benchmark and see the GIL for yourself: threads speed up waiting, processes speed up computing. Learn…
07/01/2023 9 min read

Streams API Part 1: map, filter, and forEach

Executive Summary: A Java stream is a one-use, lazy pipeline over a source such as a collection, array,…
27/12/2022 12 min read

Microservices Architecture: Trade-offs, Boundaries, and When Not to Use Them

Microservices architecture explained: service boundaries and bounded contexts, the microservices trade-offs in both directions, and honest guidance on…
13/12/2022 2 min read

Disable WordPress Core Sitemaps

Learn how to disable the WordPress core sitemap generator and why it might be beneficial for your website,…
10/12/2022 10 min read

Lambda Expressions and Functional Interfaces in Java

Executive Summary: A Java lambda implements the single abstract method of a functional interface. I cover the standard…
07/12/2022 14 min read

Python asyncio Tutorial: async, await, and Tasks Explained

Learn how the event loop runs coroutines, how tasks and TaskGroup give you concurrency, and how to handle…
19/11/2022 9 min read

Creating Custom Exceptions and Best Practices

Executive Summary: Create a custom Java exception when a failure has domain meaning that callers need to handle…
09/11/2022 12 min read

What’s New in Python 3.11: Features, Speed, and Upgrade Notes

Python 3.11 is faster, points at the exact expression that failed, and adds exception groups, TaskGroup, and tomllib.…
16/10/2022 10 min read

The Java Exception Hierarchy: Checked, Unchecked, and Error Handling by Design

Executive Summary: Every Java exception descends from Throwable, split into Errors, checked exceptions, and unchecked RuntimeExceptions. I cover…