Engineering Notes
Notes across AI systems, full-stack, distributed systems, data, commerce, and platform engineering. Pieces marked Draft are outlined but not yet published in full.
Data
Data
DraftCache-Aside vs Write-Through Redis Strategies
A closer look at how to choose a Redis caching strategy based on how your data is actually read and written, not by default.
Data
DraftPostgreSQL Performance Beyond Adding Indexes
A first-principles walkthrough of how I approach a slow PostgreSQL workload — before reaching for more hardware.
Full Stack
Full Stack
DraftDesigning High-Throughput APIs Without Overengineering
How to tell the difference between scaling work that's actually needed and scaling work that's premature.
Full Stack
DraftHow Senior Engineers Make Architecture Tradeoffs
Architecture decisions are rarely about finding the 'correct' answer — they're about naming the tradeoff clearly enough that the team can own it.
Distributed Systems
Distributed Systems
DraftKafka vs Background Job Queues
A decision framework for picking between an event log and a job queue, based on consumers, ordering, and replay needs.
Distributed Systems
DraftReliable Third-Party API Integration Patterns
The retry, circuit-breaker, and dead-letter-queue patterns that keep an integration platform healthy when upstream APIs aren't.