Best of Backend Development — June 2024

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   Article

   DEV·2y

   REST API Design Rules

   Importance of clean REST API designs for usability, maintainability, security, performance, development time, scalability, reusability, and documentation. URI rules include plural collections, singular/singletons, no trailing forward slashes, hyphen use, lowercase letters, no file extensions, and avoiding CRUD function names. HTTP method rules for creating, reading, updating, deleting, and patching resources. Versioning for maintaining backward compatibility and consistent API design.

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   Article

   ITNEXT·2y

   Optimizing Web Backends

   The post discusses common techniques for optimizing web backend performance, focusing on issues related to high response times. It categorizes optimization strategies into three main layers: Application, Database, and Infrastructure. Key methods include optimizing algorithms, using asynchronous functions, leveraging concurrency, indexing databases, scaling databases, data compression, using CDNs, upgrading to HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, and replicating infrastructure. Continuous measurement and testing are emphasized to ensure effectiveness.

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   Article

   ByteByteGo·2y

   EP118: What are the differences among database locks?

   Database locks are mechanisms to ensure data integrity and consistency by preventing concurrent access. Common types include Shared Lock, Exclusive Lock, Update Lock, Schema Lock, Bulk Update Lock, Key-Range Lock, Row-Level Lock, Page-Level Lock, and Table-Level Lock. Pagination in API design addresses large datasets with techniques like offset-based, cursor-based, page-based, keyset-based, time-based, and hybrid pagination. Further highlights cover architecture patterns (MVC, MVP, MVVM, MVVM-C, VIPER) and web browsing process from typing a URL to loading a webpage.

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   Article

   Community Picks·2y

   Top 5 Node.js Backend Frameworks in 2024

   Explore the top 5 Node.js backend frameworks in 2024, including Express.js, NestJS, Koa.js, and Adonis.js. Learn about their key features and use cases.

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   Article

   Community Picks·2y

   First Look At ElysiaJS

   The post explores the author's experience with ElysiaJS, a runtime environment for building modern APIs. It discusses the features of ElysiaJS, such as end-to-end type safety and robust validation. The post also provides examples of code snippets to create a server using ElysiaJS.

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   Article

   Awesome Go·2y

   Avoiding Beginner Mistakes Hampering You to Scale Backend⚡️

   The post outlines techniques for dramatically scaling backend performance from 50K to 1M requests on minimal resources. Key strategies include building an observability pipeline, performing stress tests, connection pooling, enforcing resource constraints, disabling implicit transactions, adding indexes, handling transaction locks, and increasing file descriptor limits. The backend, developed in Golang with a monolithic architecture using GIN and GORM, underwent significant optimizations to achieve improved efficiency and scalability.

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   Article

   Netguru·2y

   14 Top Software Developer Skills for 2024: The Complete Guide

   Discover the top software developer skills for 2024, including mastering core programming languages, data structures and algorithms, version control systems, IDE proficiency, database management, SDLC knowledge, cloud computing competency, cybersecurity awareness, soft skills, machine learning and AI fundamentals, CI/CD practices, mobile development skills, DevOps practices, and emerging technologies.

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   Article

   AppSignal·2y

   How to Perform Data Validation in Node.js

   Data validation is crucial in both frontend and backend applications to ensure data correctness, consistency, and security. This tutorial focuses on implementing data validation in Node.js using the express-validator library. It covers the importance and benefits of validating incoming requests, explains validation chains and schema-based validation, and provides sample code for validating route parameters, query parameters, and body data in an Express application.

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   Article

   Quastor Daily·2y

   How Uber Tracks Billions of Trips

   Learn how Uber tracks billions of trips, including their use of Apache Pinot, challenges faced in building their job counting system, and strategies to improve query performance.

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10. 10
    Article

    Faun·2y

    Understanding when to cache your APIs

    Learn about caching techniques, including client-side and server-side caching, cache hit ratio, and when to cache APIs.

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    Article

    Community Picks·2y

    Juniors Are Doomed And This Is Good (LLMs Hype, Copilots, and The Turning Point)

    A junior engineer's role in tech is becoming increasingly demanding, requiring proficiency in multiple skills whether in frontend, backend, or operations. The evolution of technology and the advent of tools like LLMs and AI models mean future junior engineers will need to be well-rounded experts. Those unable to keep up will find the industry challenging and might need to consider alternate career paths.

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    Article

    Quastor Daily·2y

    How LinkedIn Reduced Latency with JSON

    LinkedIn switched from JSON to Protobuf to address performance issues in its microservices architecture. JSON, albeit human-readable and widely supported, led to increased network bandwidth usage and higher serialization/deserialization latency. After evaluating several alternatives, LinkedIn chose Protobuf due to its smaller payloads, faster serialization/deserialization, type safety, and extensive language support. This switch resulted in improved throughput and up to 60% latency reduction for large payloads.

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    Article

    Community Picks·2y

    Magic-Link Sign-In: Next.js, Supabase, Sendgrid

    Learn how to build a simple Magic-Link Sign-In system using Next.js, Supabase, and SendGrid. It eliminates the need for passwords and allows users to log in by clicking a unique link sent to their email.

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    Article

    Hacker News·2y

    gRPC: The Bad Parts

    gRPC is a high-performance RPC framework with widespread language support, but it has its downsides. Key issues include a steep learning curve with complex terminology, reliance on HTTP/2 which isn't fully supported by browsers, lack of early standardized JSON mapping, and challenges with finite message sizes requiring complex implementation. Furthermore, gRPC's tooling and community engagement could be improved. Some of these problems are being addressed, such as better HTTP/3 support and advanced tools like the Buf CLI, but ongoing efforts are needed to unlock gRPC's full potential.

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    Article

    KDnuggets·2y

    Why You Should Learn SQL in 2024

    Learning SQL is crucial in 2024 as it remains a highly demanded skill for data professionals, enabling efficient data management and analysis. SQL's readability, standardization, and integration with other tools like Python and R make it an invaluable asset in any data-centric environment. Mastering SQL can significantly enhance one's ability to handle large datasets, perform complex queries, and interact with various database systems.

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    Article

    Community Picks·2y

    HOW TO DEAL WITH EXCEPTIONS IN LARAVEL

    Learn how to better deal with exceptions in Laravel and improve error handling in your application.

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    Article

    freeCodeCamp·2y

    PHP Arrays in Practice: How to Rebuild the Football Team Cards Project with PHP and MongoDB

    Learn how to rebuild the football team cards project from freeCodeCamp's JavaScript curriculum using PHP and MongoDB. The guide covers installation of MongoDB for PHP, setup of MongoDB Atlas, and performing CRUD operations. Basic PHP knowledge and familiarity with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and databases are prerequisites for following along.

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    Article

    Planet Python·2y

    The State of Django 2024

    Discover the latest trends in Django development, including the use of Flask and FastAPI alongside Django, the popularity of Django for both full-stack and API development, the shift towards htmx, Alpine.js, and Tailwind CSS for frontend development, and the favored databases, container orchestration, CI systems, and infrastructure as code solutions among Django developers.

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    Article

    Amplication·2y

    Backend Development with AI-Powered .NET Code Generation

    Amplication has expanded its backend development platform to support full AI-powered .NET code generation. This solution helps developers handle and update legacy code, integrate with Microsoft tools, meet compliance and security standards, and adhere to enterprise best practices. It offers features such as AI-powered code generation, configurable data models, CRUD and custom APIs generation, scalable architecture, authentication and authorization support, and integration with popular tools and services.

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    Article

    MotherDuck·2y

    What Happens When You Put a Database in Your Browser?

    WebAssembly has revolutionized browser capabilities, enabling high-performance applications like DuckDB directly in the browser. DuckDB Wasm is particularly useful for in-browser analytics, ad-hoc queries, and educational tools. A practical example includes a Firefox extension for displaying Parquet file schemas in GCP Cloud Storage. MotherDuck leverages DuckDB Wasm for responsive querying and offers an SDK for developers to create data-driven applications.

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    Article

    ITNEXT·2y

    Sharing real-time WebSocket data across multiple browser windows

    Learn how to share real-time WebSocket data across multiple browser windows using a demo app. The backend code is kept simple using express and ws. You can find the demo code in a GitHub repository. There are possibilities to boost the performance of the app.

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    Article

    PHP Dev·2y

    Mastering Traits: The Power of Reusable Code

    Laravel traits enhance code reusability and maintainability by allowing developers to share functionality among different classes without duplicating code. This post emphasizes the importance of traits for keeping code clean, flexible, and adaptable to new requirements. A practical example demonstrates creating a Loggable trait for event logging, showcasing how traits can streamline the development process and improve collaboration.

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    Article

    Lobsters·2y

    Serving a billion web requests with boring code

    A developer recounts their experience building and launching a large-scale healthcare application for the US government using stable and well-known technologies like Golang, PostgreSQL, and React. Emphasizing the importance of simplicity and reliability, the project achieved high performance with minimal errors. The backend was modular, using gRPC for service communication, and a strict backwards-compatibility policy ensured robustness. The team faced challenges with documentation generation and maintaining sql-mock tests, but overall, the software was successful and served millions efficiently.

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