Backend
Zero-Downtime Postgres Migrations with NOT VALID
Learn how to safely add Foreign Keys and CHECK constraints to massive PostgreSQL tables without lock pileups using NOT VALID and VALIDATE CONSTRAINT.
Topic
Backend
A collection of essays to explore, one idea at a time.
Essays
Newest firstBackend
Fencing Tokens: Why TTL Distributed Locks Still Corrupt Data
TTL distributed locks cannot prevent race conditions during process pauses. Learn why monotonic fencing tokens are necessary to guarantee data integrity.
Architecture
Request Coalescing: Stop Cache Stampedes with Singleflight
How request coalescing collapses concurrent cache misses into a single database query, protecting your backend from catastrophic cache stampedes.
Architecture
Postgres SKIP LOCKED: The Lean Job Queue You Already Have
Build high-throughput background queues in PostgreSQL using FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED without adding Redis or RabbitMQ infrastructure.
Backend
Stop Running EXPLAIN ANALYZE Without BUFFERS
Execution time in PostgreSQL query plans can be deeply misleading. Here is why buffer metrics reveal the true I/O footprint of your queries.
API Design
Designing Safe APIs: The Mechanics of Idempotency Keys
How to build production-grade idempotency in REST APIs using atomic locks, response caching, and payload hashing to prevent duplicate mutations.
Backend
Why Postgres SKIP LOCKED Beats Dedicated Message Queues
Before deploying Redis or RabbitMQ for background tasks, learn how PostgreSQL's FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED provides transactional job queues with zero extra infra.
Architecture
Stop Guessing Connection Pool Size: Fix DB Bottlenecks
Learn why oversized database connection pools ruin performance, and how to calculate the optimal pool size for high-throughput microservices.
Backend
Stop Cache Stampede: Protect Your DB from Thundering Herd
Learn how to prevent cache stampedes and the thundering herd problem using mutex locks, stale-while-revalidate, and XFetch to safeguard your database.