Every article, ever.
119 deep-dives across 17 tracks — sorted newest first.
May 2026
9 articlesChain-of-Thought Prompting: Making LLMs Show Their Work
Zero-shot CoT, few-shot CoT, self-consistency, and when reasoning traces hurt as much as they help — the technique that unlocked multi-step reasoning in LLMs.
May 10
11 min
Next.js 16 App Router: Layouts, Cache Components, and the New Mental Model
File conventions (page, layout, loading, error), async params, route groups, parallel and intercepting routes, Cache Components with use cache, and Proxy.
May 8
15 min
ReAct Prompting: Reasoning and Acting in LLM Agents
The Thought → Action → Observation loop that lets LLMs use tools, verify intermediate steps, and self-correct — the pattern behind most modern AI agents.
May 8
11 min
TanStack Query v5: Server-Cache State Done Right
Query keys, staleTime vs gcTime, useSuspenseQuery, optimistic updates with rollback, and how to compose React Query with Next.js 16 Server Components.
May 6
13 min
Prompt Injection: Attack Vectors and Defence in Production
Direct injection, indirect injection via retrieved content, jailbreaks, and the defence-in-depth architecture that keeps LLM applications secure.
May 6
13 min
React State Management in 2026: A Decision Tree, Not a Religion
Server data, URL state, local state, and global stores — when to use Zustand vs Jotai vs Context vs Redux, and why most state belongs nowhere near a global store.
May 4
12 min
Function Calling and Tool Use: Structured Outputs from LLMs
JSON mode, tool schemas, parallel tool calls, and the architecture patterns that let LLMs interact reliably with external APIs and databases.
May 4
12 min
React Server Components in Next.js 16: The Boundary Mental Model
Server Components vs Client Components vs SSR — what runs where, how the boundary works, and the React 19 + Next.js 16 patterns for forms, mutations, and streaming.
May 2
14 min
Zero-Shot Prompting: What LLMs Know Without Examples
Clear task framing, persona, output format, and constraints — how to get accurate results from a single well-crafted prompt with no examples.
May 2
9 min
April 2026
26 articlesReact Fiber Explained: Lanes, Phases, and Why Your Renders Behave That Way
A working mental model for React Fiber — render vs commit phase, the Lane priority model, automatic batching, useTransition, and useDeferredValue.
Apr 30
12 min
Few-Shot Prompting: Teaching LLMs by Example
Selecting, ordering, and structuring input-output examples to reliably steer model behaviour — the most effective prompting technique for consistent formatted output.
Apr 30
10 min
React 19 Hooks: The Modern Mental Model in the Compiler Era
A 2026 hooks refresher under React 19 and the React Compiler — what to write, what to delete, and the use(), useActionState, and useFormStatus APIs that change everything.
Apr 28
13 min
Production Monitoring: The Four Golden Signals and the SLO Stack
Latency, traffic, errors, and saturation — the four golden signals — plus SLIs, SLOs, error budgets, and the alerting philosophy that prevents alert fatigue.
Apr 28
12 min
Branching Strategies: Trunk-Based Development vs GitFlow in 2026
Trunk-based development, feature flags, short-lived branches, GitFlow trade-offs, and why high-performing teams converge on committing to main.
Apr 26
11 min
Minimal APIs in .NET 9: Typed Results, Route Groups, and Endpoint Filters Done Right
Production-shaped Minimal APIs with typed Results<T>, route groups, endpoint filters, [FromKeyedServices], and the new built-in OpenAPI replacing Swashbuckle.
Apr 25
13 min
CI/CD Pipeline Design: Fast Feedback, Quality Gates, and DORA Metrics
Trunk-based development, parallel testing, deployment gates, feature flags, and designing pipelines that keep deployment frequency high and failure rate low.
Apr 24
13 min
Clean Architecture in .NET 9: One Rule, Four Layers, and When to Skip the Whole Thing
The dependency rule applied pragmatically — solution layout, port-and-adapter wiring, NetArchTest enforcement, and when Vertical Slice Architecture is the better fit.
Apr 22
14 min
Kubernetes Deployments: Rolling Updates, Resource Limits, and HPA
Deployment strategies, readiness and liveness probes, resource requests and limits, Horizontal Pod Autoscaler, and PodDisruptionBudgets for zero-downtime releases.
Apr 22
14 min
Docker for Production: Multi-Stage Builds, Security, and Compose
Multi-stage builds that cut image size by 80%, non-root users, read-only filesystems, health checks, and Compose patterns for local development parity.
Apr 20
12 min
CQRS in .NET Without the Cargo Cult: A Practical Guide for 2026
CQRS as a folder discipline, command/query handlers without MediatR, vertical slice architecture, and when eventual consistency is overkill.
Apr 18
15 min
GitHub Actions in Production: Workflows, OIDC, and Reusable Patterns
Triggers, matrix builds, reusable workflows, composite actions, OIDC cloud authentication, and the patterns that keep CI pipelines fast and secure.
Apr 18
13 min
TypeScript Mapped Types and Template Literals: Transforming Shapes at the Type Level
Mapped types, key remapping, template literal types, and combining them with conditional types to build transformation layers with zero runtime cost.
Apr 16
12 min
The Repository Pattern in .NET: When It Helps, When It Hurts, and What to Use Instead
Why generic IRepository<T> over EF Core is usually an anti-pattern, when domain repositories earn their keep, and the specification pattern as a cleaner alternative.
Apr 15
12 min
TypeScript Conditional Types: Type-Level Logic That Scales
Conditional types, the infer keyword, distributive behaviour, and recursive types — the foundation of every advanced TypeScript utility.
Apr 14
13 min
EF Core 9 in Production: Tracking, Projections, and the Performance Levers That Matter
Bulk updates with ExecuteUpdateAsync, projection over Include, AsSplitQuery for cartesian explosion, auto-compiled models, and IDbContextFactory for parallel work.
Apr 12
14 min
Zod: Schema-First Validation That Earns Its Type Safety
Parse API responses, form inputs, and env variables with Zod schemas that double as TypeScript types — no more manual type assertions at system boundaries.
Apr 12
12 min
TypeScript Type Guards: Narrowing Without the Noise
typeof, instanceof, in, discriminated unions, custom type predicates, and assertion functions — the narrowing toolkit that keeps runtime errors out of production.
Apr 10
10 min
Dependency Injection in .NET 9: Lifetimes, Keyed Services, and the Scope Pattern
Lifetime selection, keyed services (.NET 8+), the BackgroundService scope pattern, and the four DI anti-patterns that cause production bugs.
Apr 8
12 min
TypeScript Utility Types: The Production Toolkit
Partial, Required, Pick, Omit, Record, Extract, Exclude, ReturnType — when to use each and how to compose them for real-world type transformations.
Apr 8
11 min
Async/Await in .NET 9: ConfigureAwaitOptions, Task.WhenEach, and Bounded Concurrency
Modern async patterns for ASP.NET Core — context capture, the .NET 8 ConfigureAwaitOptions enum, .NET 9 Task.WhenEach, and the anti-patterns that cause production incidents.
Apr 6
14 min
TypeScript Generics: Constraints, Variance, and Inference
Type parameters, constraints, conditional inference, and the patterns that make generics actually useful in production TypeScript.
Apr 6
12 min
LINQ in .NET 9: Deferred Execution, IQueryable, and the New Operators
Practical LINQ for backend engineers — IEnumerable vs IQueryable, the .NET 9 CountBy/AggregateBy/Index additions, and EF Core translation pitfalls.
Apr 4
13 min
Mocking Patterns: Stubs, Spies, Fakes, and When Not to Mock
Master test double patterns — distinguish stubs from mocks, use Vitest module mocking, implement MSW for HTTP, and avoid over-mocking that hides real bugs.
Apr 4
13 min
C# Generics Mastery: Constraints, Variance, and Generic Math in .NET 9
Type-safe abstractions without overhead — constraints, covariance/contravariance, INumber<T>, and the .NET 9 "allows ref struct" anti-constraint.
Apr 2
12 min
Test Architecture Strategy: Pyramid, Trophy, and CI Optimization
Design a scalable test architecture — apply the test pyramid and testing trophy, set meaningful coverage thresholds, and optimise CI pipeline execution time.
Apr 2
14 min
March 2026
16 articlesSnapshot Testing: When and How to Use toMatchSnapshot
Use snapshot testing effectively — understand inline vs file snapshots, handle dynamic values, avoid snapshot bloat, and know when snapshots add real value.
Mar 31
11 min
Contract Testing with Pact: Consumer-Driven Contracts for Microservices
Implement consumer-driven contract testing with Pact and PactFlow — learn pact files, provider verification, can-i-deploy, and bidirectional contracts.
Mar 29
15 min
Test-Driven Development: Red-Green-Refactor in Practice
Apply the TDD cycle — Red-Green-Refactor — to drive better software design. Covers triangulation, outside-in TDD, BDD, and working with legacy code.
Mar 27
14 min
E2E Testing with Playwright: Auto-Waiting, Page Objects, and Network Interception
Write reliable end-to-end tests with Playwright — leverage auto-waiting, build Page Object Models, intercept network requests, and eliminate flakiness.
Mar 25
15 min
Integration Testing with Testcontainers and WebApplicationFactory
Build reliable integration tests using Testcontainers for real databases, WebApplicationFactory for ASP.NET Core, and supertest for Node.js APIs.
Mar 23
14 min
Unit Testing Principles: AAA, Isolation, and Test Doubles
Master the foundational principles of unit testing — Arrange-Act-Assert, test isolation, deterministic tests, and test doubles with Vitest and xUnit.
Mar 21
12 min
Threat Modeling for Developers: STRIDE, DREAD & Beyond
STRIDE threat categories, data flow diagrams, trust boundaries, attack trees, DREAD scoring, PASTA methodology, and integrating threat modeling into the SDLC.
Mar 19
14 min
Secrets Management: Keeping Credentials Out of Code
Vault patterns, dynamic secrets, automated rotation, git secret scanning, HashiCorp Vault, Azure Key Vault, envelope encryption, and incident response for leaked secrets.
Mar 17
13 min
Dependency Scanning: Securing Your Software Supply Chain
Supply chain attacks, CVE scoring, SBOMs, transitive vulnerabilities, lockfile integrity, dependency confusion, Sigstore, and tools like Snyk and Dependabot.
Mar 15
13 min
SAST & DAST: Automated Security Testing in CI/CD
Static vs dynamic security testing, taint analysis, OWASP ZAP, Semgrep, integrating security gates into pull requests, and measuring programme effectiveness.
Mar 13
12 min
Zero Trust Architecture: Never Trust, Always Verify
Core principles of Zero Trust, microsegmentation, identity-centric security, BeyondCorp, continuous verification, and implementing Zero Trust in cloud environments.
Mar 11
13 min
OAuth 2.0 & OIDC: Authorization and Identity Explained
OAuth 2.0 grant types, PKCE, OpenID Connect layers, access vs ID tokens, token introspection, and securing SPAs and APIs with modern auth flows.
Mar 9
15 min
JWT Authentication: From Basics to Best Practices
How JSON Web Tokens work, signing algorithms (HS256 vs RS256), common vulnerabilities (algorithm confusion, none attack), token storage, and refresh token patterns.
Mar 7
13 min
OWASP Top 10: The Developer's Security Checklist
A practical guide to the OWASP Top 10 — injection, broken authentication, XSS, IDOR, security misconfigurations, and how to prevent each vulnerability class.
Mar 5
14 min
Terraform Workspaces: Multi-Environment Infrastructure
Terraform workspaces vs separate state files, workspace-based environment promotion, and when to use workspaces vs directory-per-env.
Mar 3
11 min
Terraform Modules: Reusable Infrastructure Patterns
Module composition, input variables, output values, module sources, versioning, and the Terraform Registry.
Mar 1
13 min
February 2026
24 articlesTerraform State Management: Remote Backends and Locking
Remote state backends (Azure Storage, S3, Terraform Cloud), state locking, state import, and disaster recovery for state files.
Feb 27
12 min
Secrets Management in IaC: No More Hardcoded Credentials
Azure Key Vault integration, Terraform sensitive variables, Pulumi secrets, and CI/CD secret injection patterns.
Feb 25
11 min
Pulumi with TypeScript: Type-Safe Infrastructure
Pulumi TypeScript SDK — type-safe resources, async outputs, stack references, and testing infrastructure with Jest.
Feb 23
13 min
Pulumi with Python: Infrastructure as Real Code
Pulumi Python SDK — stacks, resources, config, secrets, outputs, and ComponentResource for reusable infrastructure.
Feb 21
13 min
Policy as Code: Guardrails for Your Infrastructure
Azure Policy, OPA/Rego, Sentinel, and Checkov — enforce compliance, security, and cost rules as code in your IaC pipeline.
Feb 19
12 min
How to Build a Production-Ready AI System (Azure OpenAI + AI Search — Real Architecture)
Azure OpenAI + AI Search + embeddings — real-world architecture for production AI systems, including legacy data, orchestration, hybrid retrieval, cost control, and failure modes.
Feb 18
15 min
IaC Drift Detection: Keeping Infrastructure in Sync
Terraform plan for drift detection, Azure Policy compliance, drift remediation strategies, and automated drift alerting.
Feb 17
11 min
From Chatbot to Agent: Adding Tools, Memory, and Planning to a Simple Chat Interface
A practical walkthrough of evolving a basic LLM chatbot into a capable agent — adding tool calling, persistent memory, and multi-step planning.
Feb 15
13 min
Bicep Modules: Composable Azure Infrastructure
Bicep syntax, modules, parameters, outputs, decorators, and the Bicep Registry for reusable infrastructure.
Feb 15
13 min
Structured Outputs from LLMs: JSON Mode, Function Calling, and Schema Enforcement
Practical patterns for getting reliable structured data from LLMs — JSON mode, function calling, schema validation, and fallback strategies.
Feb 14
10 min
ARM Templates: Azure's Native Infrastructure as Code
ARM template structure, parameters, variables, outputs, dependsOn, Template Specs, and when to migrate to Bicep.
Feb 13
12 min
Token Economics: Understanding and Optimizing LLM Costs
A practical guide to understanding token pricing, measuring real costs, and implementing optimization strategies — caching, prompt compression, model routing.
Feb 12
10 min
Vector Database Selection for Production RAG
Cosmos DB, AI Search, Qdrant, Pinecone — benchmarks, cost, and operational complexity for production vector search.
Feb 11
9 min
API Gateways in 2026: YARP, Azure APIM, and the AI Gateway Pattern
YARP for in-process east-west traffic, Azure APIM north-south with policies for auth + rate limit + transform, BFF per channel, defense in depth, and the 2026 AI Gateway: token caps + semantic cache + token metrics.
Feb 11
15 min
OpenAPI 3.1 on .NET 9: Built-in Spec, Scalar UI, and Kiota Clients
Microsoft.AspNetCore.OpenApi replacing Swashbuckle, OpenAPI 3.1 with JSON Schema 2020-12, Scalar / Redoc UIs, schema + document transformers, Kiota / NSwag SDK generation, Spectral lint + oasdiff in CI.
Feb 9
13 min
AI-Powered Code Review: Building a Review Bot That Actually Helps
How to build an AI code review system that catches real issues — architecture, prompt design, GitHub integration, and practical lessons.
Feb 8
10 min
Prompt Engineering as Software Engineering
Version control, testing, parameterization, and CI pipelines for prompts — treating prompt engineering with the same rigor as application code.
Feb 7
8 min
Rate Limiting on .NET 9: Token Buckets, Redis, and Tiered Policies
Built-in RateLimiter middleware with FixedWindow/SlidingWindow/TokenBucket/Concurrency, partition by user/API key, distributed counters with Redis Lua INCR/EXPIRE, 429 + Retry-After + RateLimit-* headers, layered with APIM.
Feb 7
13 min
LLM Evaluation Beyond Vibes
Systematic approaches to evaluating LLM outputs — automated metrics, human evaluation frameworks, regression testing, and building evaluation pipelines.
Feb 5
9 min
API Versioning: URL, Header, Media Type, and Sunset Discipline
Asp.Versioning 8 on .NET 9, URL/query/header/media-type schemes, additive evolution, one domain with multiple wire mappers, RFC 8594 Sunset + Deprecation headers, per-version OpenAPI documents.
Feb 5
12 min
Multi-Agent Architecture Patterns in Production
Orchestrator, supervisor, and swarm patterns for multi-agent systems with real trade-offs and failure modes.
Feb 4
14 min
WebSockets and SignalR: Heartbeats, Backplanes, and CSWSH Defense
WebSocket vs SignalR vs SSE vs WebTransport, .NET 9 SignalR Hub + MapHub, scale-out with Redis backplane or Azure SignalR Service, KeepAliveInterval heartbeats, JWT in query string, backpressure with Channels.
Feb 3
13 min
MCP Servers: Building Tool-Using AI Agents with the Model Context Protocol
How MCP works, how to build MCP servers that expose tools to AI agents, and practical patterns for connecting LLMs to your systems.
Feb 1
12 min
gRPC on .NET 9: HTTP/3, Streaming, Deadlines, and JSON Transcoding
Four call patterns (unary/server/client/bidi), .NET 9 server + strongly-typed client over HTTP/3, deadlines + ServiceConfig retry policies, gRPC-Web for browsers, JSON transcoding so one service speaks gRPC and REST.
Feb 1
14 min
January 2026
26 articlesBuilding Reliable AI Agents with Semantic Kernel
Plugin architecture, memory, planners, and error handling patterns for building production AI agents in .NET with Semantic Kernel.
Jan 31
11 min
GraphQL with HotChocolate 14: Projections, DataLoaders, and Federation
When GraphQL beats REST and when it does not, HotChocolate 14 on .NET 9 with [UseProjection] + source-generated DataLoaders, persisted operations, cost analysis, Apollo Federation v2 with @key fields.
Jan 30
14 min
Small Language Models in Production
When and how to use small language models like Phi, Gemma, and Mistral in production — quantization, deployment patterns, and latency-cost trade-offs.
Jan 29
11 min
Event-Driven AI: Building Async Pipelines for LLM Workloads
Service Bus, Event Grid, and queue-based orchestration for AI tasks that don't belong in the request-response path.
Jan 28
11 min
REST Principles in 2026: Resources, Idempotency, and Problem Details
The five constraints that still matter (resources, methods, status codes, statelessness, cacheability), idempotency keys, RFC 9457 problem+json, cursor pagination over OFFSET, ETags + 304s, ASP.NET Core 9 MapGroup.
Jan 28
13 min
Partitioning and Sharding: Range, Hash, List, and Hot Partitions
Vertical vs horizontal vs sharding, range/hash/list strategies, Postgres declarative partitioning + pg_partman, drop-old-partitions instead of DELETE, Cosmos hierarchical partition keys, verifying pruning with EXPLAIN.
Jan 26
14 min
Building a Personal AI Knowledge Base
How to build a personal RAG system over your notes, bookmarks, and documents — using embeddings, vector search, and a conversational interface.
Jan 25
11 min
Testing LLM-Powered Features Without Going Broke
Mock strategies, evaluation harnesses, snapshot testing, and cost-aware CI for LLM-integrated applications.
Jan 24
9 min
Normalization: 1NF to 3NF, Denormalize Reads, Snapshot Truths
1NF/2NF/3NF/BCNF in plain English, when to denormalize via materialized views or CQRS read models, snapshots vs duplication, REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW CONCURRENTLY, propagating changes via CDC.
Jan 24
12 min
When to Fine-Tune vs Few-Shot vs RAG
A decision framework for choosing between fine-tuning, few-shot prompting, and RAG for production LLM applications.
Jan 22
10 min
Schema Design: Keys, Relationships, Tenancy, and Audit
Surrogate (UUIDv7/bigint) vs natural keys, foreign keys + CHECK constraints, audit columns + history triggers, soft delete with partial indexes, multi-tenancy patterns + Postgres RLS, junction tables for N:N.
Jan 22
13 min
The AI Gateway Pattern: Why Every Production LLM Needs One
API Management, rate limiting, semantic caching, and cost control with Azure APIM as an AI Gateway.
Jan 21
10 min
Weaviate 1.27+: Multi-Tenancy, Dynamic Indexes, and Generative Search
Weaviate 1.27/1.28 multi-tenancy, dynamic indexes (flat → HNSW), text2vec/generative modules, gRPC v4 clients, hybrid alpha, generative-openai for RAG-in-one-call, tenant offboarding.
Jan 20
14 min
Testing Autonomous Coding Agents: GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Windsurf in Real Projects
A hands-on experiment comparing autonomous coding agents on real engineering tasks — multi-file refactoring, bug fixing, and feature implementation.
Jan 18
14 min
Pinecone Serverless: Namespaces, Hybrid Search, and Reranking
Pinecone serverless GA (2024), namespaces for multitenancy, sparse-dense hybrid, .NET PineconeClient, batch upserts, metadata filtering, built-in rerankers (BGE/Cohere), tenant offboarding via DeleteAll.
Jan 18
13 min
Integrating Azure OpenAI with ASP.NET Core: A Production Guide
SDK setup, retry policies, streaming responses, and structured outputs for Azure OpenAI in .NET production applications.
Jan 17
10 min
pgvector 0.8/0.9: HNSW, halfvec, and RAG on Postgres
pgvector 0.8 (Oct 2024) iterative scans + halfvec, 0.9 sparse vectors, HNSW vs IVFFlat, EF Core 9 + Pgvector.EntityFrameworkCore, halfvec/bit quantization, hybrid search with tsvector, maintenance_work_mem for builds.
Jan 16
14 min
Claude vs GPT for Engineering Workflows
A practical comparison of Claude and GPT models for real engineering tasks — code generation, debugging, architecture reviews, and documentation.
Jan 15
12 min
Designing RAG Systems That Actually Scale
Chunking strategies, embedding pipelines, retrieval patterns, and when RAG breaks down in production systems.
Jan 14
12 min
Azure Cosmos DB: Partition Keys, RUs, and the Five Consistencies
Cosmos DB SQL API, 5 consistency levels, partition-key design (10GB cap, hot-partition avoidance), RU/s autoscale vs serverless, CosmosClient v3 Direct mode + DefaultAzureCredential, point reads (1 RU), change feed, hierarchical partition keys, vector search GA.
Jan 14
15 min
MongoDB 8.x: Embed vs Reference, ESR Indexes, and the Aggregation Pipeline
MongoDB 8.0 (Oct 2024) / 8.2, queryable encryption GA, Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore + DocumentDB, MongoDB.Driver 3.x LINQ, embed-vs-reference rule, ESR compound indexes, partial/TTL indexes, aggregation pipeline, atomic positional updates.
Jan 12
13 min
Redis 8 / Valkey in 2026: HybridCache, Streams, and Distributed Locks
Redis 8 SSPL/RSALv2 + Valkey LF fork, Azure Cache Enterprise, .NET 9 HybridCache (L1+L2 + stampede protection), atomic rate limit, SET NX EX + Lua compare-and-delete locks, Streams + consumer groups, sorted-set leaderboards, TTL jitter.
Jan 10
14 min
Transactions and Isolation: ANSI Levels, MVCC, and SERIALIZABLE
Four ANSI levels, MVCC vs 2PL, EF Core 9 BeginTransactionAsync, [Timestamp] rowversion optimistic concurrency, FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED, write-skew, retry on 40001/40P01 with exponential backoff, transactional outbox over 2PC.
Jan 8
14 min
SQL Patterns: Joins, Window Functions, MERGE, and Killing N+1
N+1 to JOIN/LATERAL, EXISTS vs IN vs JOIN, ROW_NUMBER/RANK/SUM OVER, ANSI MERGE in PG 15+, ON CONFLICT upsert, Dapper parameterization, EXPLAIN read guide, NULL semantics + OR-defeats-index pitfalls.
Jan 6
14 min
PostgreSQL 17/18 in 2026: MVCC, Indexes, and EF Core 9
PG 17 (Sept 2024) async I/O, PG 18 (Sept 2025) features, MVCC + xmin/xmax, btree/GIN/GiST/BRIN, JSONB jsonb_path_ops, partial/functional indexes, EF Core 9 + Npgsql 9, EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS), VACUUM and PgBouncer pitfalls.
Jan 4
15 min
Dijkstra in C#: PriorityQueue, A*, and Why Negative Edges Break It
Production Dijkstra with .NET PriorityQueue and the skip-stale pattern, path reconstruction, A* with admissible heuristics, multi-source variants, and Bellman-Ford for negatives.
Jan 2
14 min
December 2025
16 articlesGraph Traversal: BFS, DFS, Topological Sort, and the Visited Set
Adjacency list vs matrix, BFS for unweighted shortest path, DFS recursive vs iterative, Kahn's topological sort, three-colour cycle detection, and connected components.
Dec 31
13 min
Trees: BSTs, Balance, and Why SortedDictionary Is Red-Black
BST vs self-balancing (red-black, AVL), B-trees in databases, heaps with PriorityQueue, tries for prefix queries, and iterative traversals that don't blow the stack.
Dec 29
13 min
Dynamic Programming: State, Recurrence, Base Case, Order
Top-down memoization vs bottom-up tables, coin change, 0/1 knapsack with reverse iteration, edit distance, LIS in O(n log n), and reconstructing the solution.
Dec 27
15 min
Recursion: When It's Elegant, When It's a Stack Overflow
Base/recursive/combine, memoization vs iteration, why .NET doesn't reliably tail-call optimize, and converting recursion to an explicit Stack<T> for adversarial depth.
Dec 25
12 min
Sorting in 2026: Introsort, Stability, and When to Reach for Radix
.NET introsort vs LINQ stable OrderBy, comparator rules (never a - b), 0/1 vs unbounded knapsack-style iteration, counting sort, and external merge sort for data > RAM.
Dec 23
13 min
Binary Search: One Template That Solves Every Variant
Half-open [low, high) invariant, lower-bound and upper-bound, first/last occurrence, binary search on the answer, floating-point search, and the BCL helpers.
Dec 21
12 min
Consistency Models: From Strong to Eventual (and What CAP Doesn't Tell You)
Linearizable, causal, bounded staleness, session, eventual — what each one buys you, Cosmos DB's 5 levels, SQL isolation, read-your-writes, and sagas instead of 2PC.
Dec 19
13 min
Message Queues: Delivery Semantics, Idempotency, and the Outbox Pattern
Queue vs stream vs topic, why exactly-once is marketing, peek-lock + explicit complete, idempotency tables, the transactional outbox, and Service Bus sessions for FIFO.
Dec 17
14 min
Rate Limiting: Token Bucket, Sliding Window, and Distributed Counters
ASP.NET Core RateLimiter, Redis-backed sliding-window in Lua, picking the right partition key, tiering by endpoint cost, and the 429 + Retry-After contract.
Dec 15
12 min
Load Balancing: L4 vs L7, P2C, and Health Checks That Actually Catch Failures
Algorithm matrix (round-robin, least-conn, EWMA, P2C, consistent hash), .NET 9 health checks, outlier ejection, the Azure LB service map, and Polly v8 resilience.
Dec 13
13 min
Sharding: Picking a Key You Won't Regret in Two Years
Hash vs range vs directory sharding, the shard-key checklist, consistent hashing in C#, dual-write resharding, and when managed Cosmos DB / SQL Hyperscale beats DIY.
Dec 11
14 min
Caching in 2026: Cache-Aside, HybridCache, and the Four Failure Modes
Cache-aside vs write-through, .NET 9 HybridCache (L1+L2 with stampede protection), TTL design with jitter, and the four ways caches actually fail in production.
Dec 9
13 min
Azure Functions in 2026: Flex Consumption, Isolated Worker, and Identity Everywhere
Move off in-process .NET and legacy Consumption — Flex Consumption + isolated worker, identity-based connections, Event Grid blob triggers, and concurrency tuned to the trigger.
Dec 7
14 min
Azure App Service: Premium V4, Slots, Easy Auth, and Key Vault References
Deployment slots for blue/green, system identity + Key Vault references, Easy Auth with Entra, and when App Service is the wrong answer.
Dec 5
12 min
AKS in 2026: Automatic, Workload Identity, and the Cluster You Actually Want
AKS Automatic vs Standard, Azure CNI Overlay + Cilium, Workload Identity (Pod Identity is dead), Node Auto Provisioning, and a sane upgrade strategy.
Dec 3
15 min
Azure Event Grid in 2026: System Topics, CloudEvents, and the Namespace Tier
When to pick Event Grid vs Service Bus vs Event Hubs, how the validation handshake works, and the Namespace tier with MQTT and pull delivery.
Dec 1
12 min
November 2025
2 articlesAzure Service Bus: Queues, Topics, Sessions, and DLQ Done Right
Peek-lock vs ReceiveAndDelete, sessions for FIFO, DLQ replay patterns, Premium partitioning, and the SKU choice that matches your SLA.
Nov 29
13 min
Azure OpenAI in Production: Deployments, PTUs, and Identity-Only Access
The 2026 Azure OpenAI baseline — Bicep with keys disabled, deployment names that don't break, Standard vs PTU sizing, and content filter handling.
Nov 27
12 min
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