1. Session, Cookie, JWT, Token, SSO, and OAuth 2.0 - here's what you need to know

These terms are essential for identifying, authenticating, and authorizing users online. Let's dive in👇 2. WWW-Authenticate

🔹 Oldest & most basic method
🔹 Browser asks for username & password
🔹 Lacks control over login life cycle
🔹 Rarely used today

1. A single character change led to a 3.3x performance boost at Segment's internal tracing storage infrastructure, TraceDB.

This is the story of how a tiny tweak made a massive impact. Keep reading to learn more! 🚀 2. TraceDB's sorting algorithm is designed to sort tracing spans by trace ID and flush them to disk in an LSM tree during compaction. But the team at Segment noticed it was too sluggish when handling incoming queries.

8 key data structures that power modern databases. Which one is your favorite, and why? My preference? Definitely B-tree and LSM tree.

There's no denying that these two are the backbone behind the most powerful relational and NoSQL databases out there.

Mind-blowing AI advancements this week!

Check out the highlights: Monday:

Stanford announced the Alpaca 7B model. It's a fine-tuned model based on Meta's LLaMA. It performs similar to ChatGPT but is lightweight enough to run on consumer devices. GPT-like models are getting cheaper and more accessible really fast.

https://twitter.com/simonw/status/1635344568928604160

Have you ever wondered why Nginx is called a "reverse" proxy?

Check out this diagram to see the difference between a forward and reverse proxy. 🧵 A forward proxy, or just proxy, is a server that shields user devices from the internet.

Use it to:
1️⃣ Protect your online identity
2️⃣ Sidestep browsing restrictions
3️⃣ Block access to unwanted content

You loved my tweet on Stack Overflow's monolith. Now, let’s explore the opposite end of the spectrum: Netflix API architecture evolution.

Discover how Netflix API evolved through 4 stages. 1. Monolith

Like everyone else, Netflix started with a monolithic architecture where the entire application was packaged and deployed as a single entity.

1. Let's talk about a memorable challenge in running a massive online game years ago - the battle against DDoS attacks in online poker! 2. Why would anyone DDoS a poker game you might ask?

Here's one reason: to block anyone from sending continuation bets resulting in an automatic forfeit. The ill-gotten gains were then offloaded to a thriving black market.

Stack Overflow is a multi-tenant monolithic application serving 2 billion monthly page views across 200 sites.

Here are some amazing stats: It's on-prem, with only nine IIS web servers.

Each server runs their highly optimized .NET code, handling 6000 rps each, and consuming only 5 - 10% capacity.

The code minimizes memory allocation to keep garbage collection infrequent.

I've used Redis in production for almost a decade. It's reliable and easy to use (if used correctly).

Here are my top 5 use cases where it shines: 1. Caching

The most common use case is to utilize Redis for caching objects or pages. This helps protect the database layer from overloading.

I've interviewed hundreds of engineers and written a bestseller on system design interviews. Here are my most actionable tips to help you succeed: 1. Ask clarifying questions

We can’t afford to be unfocused. Asking clarifying questions helps us and the interviewer focus on the right things in such a short amount of time.

https://twitter.com/sahnlam/status/1514306963676401664

System design interview tip: Ask clarifying questions. 1/7 A system design interview session usually lasts 45 minutes to an hour. We have between 35 to 45 minutes to demonstrate our abilities. 2/7