Ainsley Clark

A common mistake I see: People treat message queues and streams as if they’re interchangeable. They’re not. Here’s the difference 👇 Message Queue (MQ) - Designed for delivery guarantees (at-least-once, exactly-once). - Great for sporadic workloads and asynchronous tasks. - Messages are consumed and removed. Once acknowledged, they’re gone. - Think: order processing, background jobs, retry logic. Stream - Designed for real-time, high-throughput, continuous data. - Data is append-only and replayable. - Multiple consumers can read the same stream independently. - Think: real-time analytics dashboards, fraud detection, monitoring pipelines. Why Streams fit Aaron’s case (real-time analytics for e-commerce): - Freshness matters → Streams process events as they arrive, with low latency. - Replayability matters → If a consumer goes down, it can re-read from the offset. - Scale matters → Streams partition data for massive parallel consumption. A message queue here would introduce unnecessary latency and discard historical events that analytics needs to stay accurate. Rule of thumb: - If you care about delivery → Message Queue. - If you care about freshness & scale → Stream. That’s why the right answer here is: Streams for real-time analytics.

922

68 Comments

'We only hire senior developers' Congrats! You're building a time bomb. Here's why: Senior-only teams create: • Echo chambers of outdated practices • Zero knowledge transfer • Expensive solutions to simple problems • 10 architects, no builders What you're really missing: • Fresh perspectives • Hunger to learn • Questions that challenge assumptions • Future leaders The brutal truth: • Your 'senior' requirements are fear-based • Your '10 years experience' is arbitrary • Your 'no junior devs' policy is expensive technical debt Why this matters: • Innovation needs new eyes • Growth requires teaching • Sustainability demands succession • AI is leveling the experience gap anyway How to fix it: 1. Hire for potential, not just experience 2. Create mentorship structures 3. Balance your team pyramid 4. Accept that juniors today code better than seniors did 5 years ago Remember: Today's 'risky' junior is tomorrow's 'savior'. What's your take on the senior-only trend? Drop your thoughts below 👇 *** P.S. If your entire team is senior developers, who's asking the 'stupid' questions that prevent stupid mistakes?

93

23 Comments

Most engineers get stumped by high-level design in system design interviews. Often, they aren't even sure where to begin. Luckily, we've put together a tried and tested framework for easily building up to a working application. 1) Identify "what the system should do" 🔶 These are also known as the functional requirements 🔶 E.g. The users can make posts, like posts, follow other users etc 💡Think about what features you would want the system to have 2) Identify "how the system should behave" under specific constraints 🔶 What are the latency requirements? 🔶 How do we ensure our servers don't crash with an increasing number of users? 🔶 How do we ensure the system is always available when it's expected to be available? 🔶 How do we ensure fault tolerance to prevent data loss? 🔶 What are the trade-offs? Why should we choose one technique over the other? 3) Start addressing functional requirements in the most basic way possible 🔶 Map the data flow for each requirement with some services. E.g. When the client makes a post, they interact with a "Tweet Service" and that gets stored in a "Tweet DB" ❌ Do not add any complicated parts - this way the interviewer can correct you early on if you've made a mistake. 4) Think about how you can use your knowledge of the core system design components when addressing the functional requirements 🔶 If we have multiple services, it probably makes sense to use an API Gateway. Think of it, you wouldn't want to expose the services directly to clients. Instead, you want controlled access. 5) Once you have a feasible "what" down, address the non-functional requirements ❌ Biggest mistake candidates make here is to not tie the recommendations back to the original non-functional requirements they identified. Think about: 🔶 How you would choose between vertical scaling and horizontal scaling, and why? In our case, we can deploy more instances of the same service so we can handle requests in parallel. 🔶 Hmm... but how would you decide traffic is distributed evenly across all instances? Maybe we should consider a load balancer. 🔶 For latency, would the system benefit from caching? Is it necessary? 🔶 Think about edge cases when it comes to preventing data loss - would it make sense to have a buffer? 🔶 How do we safeguard against a database going down? A distributed database is designed to replicate and store data across multiple nodes in a cluster. High-level design should take 15-20 minutes, which is the bulk of the interview. This is then followed by a deep dive session, which lasts another 10-15 minutes. We will be covering how to ace your deep dive session in the upcoming posts. Stay tuned! --- Put this framework into practice today -> https://lnkd.in/ecQeq-s6

104

6 Comments

JetBrains just announced they're moving to a single, unified IntelliJ distribution starting with version 2025.3. No more choosing between Community and Ultimate - it's one IDE with features unlocked by subscription. Why does this matter? • Some previously paid features (Spring support, database tools) are becoming FREE • The open-source commitment remains, but with a twist • This signals bigger changes in how dev tools compete in the AI era I spent time analyzing the announcement and its implications. This isn't just about IntelliJ - it's about the future of IDEs in a world where AI assistants are changing how we write code. Full analysis here → https://lnkd.in/gBpSNWUu Curious: How many of you are using IntelliJ Community Edition today? What's your take on this change?

161

4 Comments

Stop treating code reviews like a checkbox. They’re not just routine, they’re your fastest path to better code, fewer bugs, and smarter teams. Let’s break down how to level up your code reviews, whether you’re a reviewer or an author.👇 📘 Why code reviews matter Done right, they improve productivity, product quality, and developer growth. Done wrong, they cause frustration, slow teams down, and miss bugs. 🔍 What’s a code review? A peer-based check before code merges to catch bugs, improve design, and share knowledge across the team. ✅ Reviewer checklist 1. Understand the context, read the PR summary, and task 2. Think holistically, not just line-by-line 3. Spot logic and edge case issues 4. Ask instead of telling, “What if we try X?” 5. Celebrate good decisions, it builds morale ✅  Author checklist 1. Keep PRs small and focused 2. Write a clear summary of your changes 3. Add tests, update docs 4. Be open, not defensive, feedback is fuel Why does it work?💡 -Catches bugs before they hit prod -Builds trust and team alignment -Helps new devs onboard faster -Makes your code more readable and testable Good reviews are like a helpful conversation. They ask, suggest, and celebrate what’s done well. They’re about growth, not gatekeeping. Bottom line A thoughtful, respectful code review process doesn’t just improve your codebase; it elevates your entire team. Want to build a smarter review culture? 👉 Read the full guide on GreatFrontend: https://lnkd.in/gwQKGuCg #WebDevelopment #FrontendDevelopment #JavaScript #GFE #CleanCode

139

6 Comments

Tonight I will be joining a session with the Chrome DevTools team to talk about the network debugging experience in DevTools. Thanks Barry Pollard for connecting me 🙌 One of my own feedback points: 👉 It’s difficult to capture and share request + response details. When a network error happens, developers often need both the request info (URL, headers, params) and the response (body, status code) in one place. Right now, DevTools doesn’t have an easy one-click export or screenshot for this, which would be super useful for bug reports and troubleshooting. --- The team is also focusing on challenges developers face when debugging network issues end-to-end (from back-end to front-end), such as: - Working with / integrating between multiple disjointed systems - State management challenges that make it hard to reproduce bugs reliably - Difficulty understanding the payload of large requests, or dealing with 100s of network requests on a single page (noise, latency, etc.) - The complexity and limitations of end-to-end tracing across deeper back-end components or distributed systems - Difficulty reproducing real-world conditions (e.g. prod vs. dev, latency and bandwidth inconsistencies) - Not being able to inspect network activity due to security constraints 💬 If you’ve got your own pain points with the Network tab, please drop them in the comments and I’ll pass them along! Thanks for your input, everyone 💛

50

3 Comments

Your coding skills are worthless if no one understands what you're saying. Here's how to transform from a technical expert to a strategic powerhouse: 1/ Decode Business Objectives ↳ Understand what truly matters to leadership ↳ Connect your data directly to company goals 2/ Speak Their Language ↳ Translate complex algorithms into dollar signs ↳ Show impact, not just technical complexity 3/ Master Data Storytelling ↳ Create narratives, not just spreadsheets ↳ Make your insights compelling and memorable 4/ Deliver Actionable Insights ↳ Every chart should trigger a decision ↳ Recommend clear, executable strategies 5/ Build Contextual Intelligence ↳ Look beyond numbers ↳ Understand the broader business ecosystem 6/ Simplify Technical Complexity ↳ Explain like you're talking to a curious 5-year-old ↳ Cut the jargon, focus on clarity 7/ Learn Business Dynamics ↳ Study industry trends ↳ Know what keeps executives up at night 8/ Network Strategically ↳ Build relationships across departments ↳ Be more than just the "tech person" 9/ Continuous Learning ↳ Stay curious about business strategy ↳ Read beyond technical journals 10/ Quantify Your Value ↳ Track how insights drive decisions ↳ Prove your worth beyond code Technical skills get you hired. Strategic communication gets you promoted. Combine analytical depth with business acumen, and you become unstoppable. ♻️ Repost to help data professionals unlock their true potential. Follow Tuan Sihan for frameworks that turn data nerds into business heroes.

98

31 Comments