Design Patterns You Actually Use, and the Ones You Should Not Reach For
The pattern books list twenty-three. You reach for about six. Here are those six, the problem each solves, and why naming a pattern is a tool, not a trophy.
Building Backends01
Series · 8 parts · 2,019–2,023
Building Backends
The plumbing that turns a prototype into a service, written between 2019 and 2023: the handful of design patterns you actually use, choosing between Django and FastAPI, what a database transaction really guarantees, when to reach past SQL and when not to, REST APIs that age well, the real-time spectrum from polling to WebSocket to WebRTC, gRPC between services, and the small tricks that keep a backend boring. Problems, solutions, and the reason behind each.
Django or FastAPI: How the Framework Shapes the Code You Write
One gives you everything and an opinion; the other gives you speed and a blank page. The choice is about how much you want the framework to decide for you.
Building Backends02
Databases and ACID: What a Transaction Actually Promises
A transaction is a promise the database makes when two things happen at once. What ACID guarantees, the anomalies it prevents, and the race it does not.
Building Backends03
SQL or NoSQL: Just Use Postgres, and the Cases Where You Should Not
NoSQL was sold as the future and is really a specialised tool. What each kind buys, why relational is the right default, and the real cases for reaching past it.
Building Backends04
Designing a REST API That Ages Well
An API is a contract you have to keep. Resources and verbs, the status codes that matter, idempotency, pagination, versioning, and errors that a client can act on.
Building Backends05
Real-Time: Polling, WebSocket, WebRTC, and What Is on the Wire
HTTP is a client asking and a server answering. Real-time is the server needing to speak first. Here is the ladder of ways to do that, and what to pick when.
Building Backends06
gRPC: How Services Talk When the Client Is Another Server
REST is built for the browser. When both ends are your own servers, a typed binary contract with generated code is often faster and safer. That is gRPC.
Building Backends07
Backend Best Practices: The Tricks That Keep a Service Boring
Boring is the highest compliment a backend can earn. The layering, config, jobs, and observability habits that stop the phone call at three in the morning.
Building Backends08