Data Storage & Processing
Database scalability, ACID vs BASE, isolation levels, message brokers, exactly-once semantics, and big-data pipelines.
Database Design
Scalability and Data Modeling in Databases
10 min →How to think about database scalability — workload patterns, data models, and the trade-offs between relational, document, wide-column, and NoSQL choices.
ACID vs BASE Trade-offs
7 min →Two paradigms for data consistency. What ACID and BASE actually guarantee, when each applies, and how modern systems blend them.
Transaction Isolation Levels
8 min →The four standard isolation levels, the anomalies each one allows, and how to pick the right level for each operation.
Messaging & Processing
Distributed Search
8 min →How distributed search engines work — inverted indexes, sharding, scoring, and the trade-offs of Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, and the modern alternatives.
Message Queue Systems
9 min →The major message broker categories and when each fits. Queues vs. streams, RabbitMQ vs. Kafka vs. SQS, and the architectural patterns they support.
Exactly-Once Semantics
8 min →The myth, the reality, and the patterns that approximate "exactly-once" in production. Idempotency, deduplication, and the practical tools.
Big Data Processing
8 min →Batch and streaming at scale — Spark, Flink, Beam, and the modern data stack. The architectural patterns that move TB-scale data through pipelines.
Kafka Deep Dive
12 min →How Kafka actually works — partitions, replication, producers, consumers, transactions. The mental model for using it well in production SaaS.