Performance
17 articles on Performance.
Core Web Vitals for Backend Engineers: TTFB, Caching & Server-Side Wins (2026)
Most Core Web Vitals advice targets frontend developers, but LCP and INP problems usually start at the server. This guide covers the backend half: TTFB budgets, connection pooling, cache strategy, streaming SSR, CDN headers, and compression — with the production numbers behind each fix.
June 10, 2026·7 min readPutting an ML Model in Production: A Backend Engineer's Guide to Inference APIs
Serving a model is a backend problem, not a data-science one. A practical guide to production inference APIs — latency vs throughput, batching, GPU concurrency, caching, autoscaling cold starts, and the failure modes that don't exist in a notebook.
May 24, 2026·6 min readPostgres Index Bloat Nearly Took Down Production: A VACUUM Deep-Dive
A table that was 2 GB of data carried 14 GB of dead tuples and bloated indexes. How MVCC creates bloat, how to measure it, and how autovacuum tuning, HOT updates, and a careful REINDEX brought query times back from 3s to 40ms.
March 5, 2026·6 min readWhen Our Kafka Consumer Lag Hit 2 Million: A Debugging War Story
Our order events fell 2 million messages behind and nobody noticed for hours. A practical walkthrough of diagnosing Kafka consumer lag — partitions, rebalances, poison messages — and the fixes that got us back to real time.
February 20, 2026·6 min readThe Cache Stampede That Took Down Our API: A Redis p99 War Story
A single expiring Redis key sent 4,000 requests to PostgreSQL at once and spiked our p99 latency to 9 seconds. Here's how cache stampedes happen, how we debugged ours, and the locking + jitter fixes that cut p99 by 80%.
February 10, 2026·7 min readDatabase Connection Pooling: The Performance Fix That Saved Our Production
How I learned about connection pooling after our PostgreSQL database crashed under load. Practical guide with real configurations from handling millions of healthcare queries.
December 19, 2025·10 min readDatabase Sharding & Partitioning: Complete Advanced Guide for Scale
Master horizontal scaling with database sharding and partitioning strategies. Learn consistent hashing, shard key selection, rebalancing, and PostgreSQL partitioning for billion-row tables.
December 19, 2025·11 min readgRPC vs REST vs GraphQL: Performance Deep Dive with Benchmarks
Comprehensive performance comparison of gRPC, REST, and GraphQL. Real benchmarks, latency analysis, throughput testing, and when to use each protocol in production systems.
December 19, 2025·9 min readRate Limiting & API Gateway Patterns: Production Implementation Guide
Master API rate limiting with token bucket, sliding window, and distributed algorithms. Implement Kong, Nginx, and custom rate limiters with Redis for high-traffic production systems.
December 19, 2025·12 min readApache vs Nginx: Complete Web Server Comparison Guide for 2025
In-depth comparison of Apache and Nginx web servers covering architecture, performance, configuration, and real-world use cases. Learn which server is right for your project.
December 18, 2024·14 min readC vs Rust vs Go: Systems Programming Language Comparison
Compare C, Rust, and Go for systems programming. Analyze memory safety, performance, concurrency, and use cases to choose the right language for your project.
December 18, 2024·7 min readGo vs Java: Backend Language Comparison for 2025
In-depth comparison of Go and Java for backend development. Compare performance, concurrency, ecosystem, and enterprise adoption to choose the right language for your project.
December 18, 2024·15 min readPython vs Go: Choosing the Right Backend Language in 2025
Comprehensive comparison of Python and Go for backend development. Explore performance, concurrency, frameworks, and real-world use cases to make the right choice for your project.
December 18, 2024·18 min readRedis Caching Strategies: Complete Guide to High-Performance Caching
Master Redis caching patterns including cache-aside, write-through, write-behind, and cache invalidation strategies. Learn practical implementations with Python and real-world performance optimization techniques.
December 16, 2024·8 min readPython Async Programming with asyncio: Complete Developer Guide
Master asynchronous programming in Python with asyncio. Learn coroutines, tasks, event loops, async context managers, and build high-performance concurrent applications with practical examples.
December 15, 2024·9 min readPostgreSQL Performance Optimization: Complete Guide for Production
Master PostgreSQL performance tuning with indexing strategies, query optimization, configuration tuning, and monitoring. Learn techniques that helped us handle 10M+ daily transactions in healthcare systems.
December 14, 2024·7 min readNginx Reverse Proxy and Load Balancing: Complete Production Guide
Master Nginx configuration for reverse proxy, load balancing, SSL termination, caching, and rate limiting. Learn production-ready configurations with practical examples and performance optimization.
December 9, 2024·8 min read