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The best problem-solving writing in software engineering — databases, performance, security, frontend and distributed systems, in one feed.

11,851 articles
Performance — Cloudflare Helps K-12s Go Back to School

Cloudflare Helps K-12s Go Back to School

Cloudflare is excited to announce our Back to School initiative that provides special K-12 Education pricing to help school districts stop cyber attacks while improving web performance.

NKNandini, Kristina WilliamsNandini, Kristina Williams·August 5, 2021Performance
Engineering — Release Radar

Release Radar

It’s been a busy time of the year for our Hubbers (GitHub employees). We’ve been shipping products, getting ready for launches, and taking some much needed time off for the…

MDMichelle DukeMichelle Duke·August 5, 2021Engineering
Design & UX — Usability Pitfalls of Disabled Buttons, and How To Avoid Them — Smashing Magazine

Usability Pitfalls of Disabled Buttons, and How To Avoid Them — Smashing Magazine

How can we make disabled buttons more inclusive? When do they work well, and when do they fail on us? And finally, when do we actually need them, and how can we avoid them? In this article, Vitaly Friedman will take a look to common usability issues with disabled buttons, how to fix these issues and when disabling buttons actually makes sense. We’ll start from the beginning, looking into when disa

VFVitaly FriedmanVitaly Friedman·August 5, 2021Design & UX
Security — Open sourcing Winterfell: A STARK prover and verifier

Open sourcing Winterfell: A STARK prover and verifier

We are releasing Winterfell, our implementation of a STARK prover/verifier to Crates.io Winterfell is an easy to use open source implementation of STARKs for security and privacy applications. One potential application for Winterfell’s zero-knowledge proofs is blockchain privacy and scalability. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” —Clarke’s Third Law What if the

MEMeta Engineering·August 4, 2021Security
Performance — React Children And Iteration Methods — Smashing Magazine

React Children And Iteration Methods — Smashing Magazine

In this article, we’ll discuss and learn about the use case of iterating over React `children` and the ways to do it. In particular, we will deep dive into one of the utility methods, `React.Children.toArray`, that React gives us, which helps to iterate over the children in a way which ensures performance and determinism.

AVArihant VermaArihant Verma·August 4, 2021Performance
Performance — Durable Objects: Easy, Fast, Correct — Choose three

Durable Objects: Easy, Fast, Correct — Choose three

When multiple clients access the same storage concurrently, race conditions abound. Durable Objects can make it easier. We recently rolled out improvements to Durable Objects that automatically correct many common race conditions while actually making your code faster.

KVKenton VardaKenton Varda·August 3, 2021Performance
Frontend — How To Build Resilient JavaScript UIs — Smashing Magazine

How To Build Resilient JavaScript UIs — Smashing Magazine

Embracing the fragility of the web empowers us to build UIs capable of adapting to the functionality they can offer, whilst still providing value to users. The User Experience (UX) doesn’t need to be all or nothing — just what is usable. This premise, known as graceful degradation allows a system to continue working when parts of it are dysfunctional — much like an electric bike becomes a regular

CHCallum HartCallum Hart·August 3, 2021Frontend
Distributed — Evolution of search engines architecture - Algolia New Search Architecture Part 1 - High Scalability -

Evolution of search engines architecture - Algolia New Search Architecture Part 1 - High Scalability -

What would a totally new search engine architecture look like? Who better than Julien Lemoine, Co-founder & CTO of Algolia, to describe what the future of search will look like. This is the first article in a series. Search engines, and more generally, information retrieval systems, play a central role in almost all of today’s technical stacks. Information retrieval started in the beginning of com

HSHigh Scalability·August 2, 2021Distributed
Frontend — Refactoring CSS: Strategy, Regression Testing And Maintenance (Part 2) — Smashing Magazine

Refactoring CSS: Strategy, Regression Testing And Maintenance (Part 2) — Smashing Magazine

After analyzing CSS and its weaknesses, and management giving a green light to the refactoring project, it’s time to get to work. A team needs to agree on the internal code standards and best practices, plan out the refactoring strategy, and outline individual tasks. We need to set up a visual regression testing suite, and a maintenance plan to enforce the new standards and best practices in the f

ABAdrian BeceAdrian Bece·August 2, 2021Frontend
Engineering — Four Lessons We Learned from Creating Spotify’s Desktop App

Four Lessons We Learned from Creating Spotify’s Desktop App

TL;DR Over the years, Spotify’s brand has expanded to encompass a number of products, from mobile apps to to . But sitting at the core is our flagship product, the one that started it all: the desktop app. In of our podcast series, “”, host and Chief R&D Officer Gustav Söderström walks through how the app (and Spotify in general) came to be — and the product lessons you should take away from that

SESpotify Engineering·August 1, 2021Engineering
Engineering — The Future of Work at Cloudflare

The Future of Work at Cloudflare

During Impact Week, we've shared how Cloudflare is providing tools for our customers to minimize their environmental impact as well as what we, as a company, are doing to help society at large. But some critical stakeholders we haven’t talked much about yet are Cloudflare's more than 2,000 employees

MPMatthew Prince, Michelle ZatlynMatthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn·July 30, 2021Engineering
Engineering — Building a sustainable workforce, through communities

Building a sustainable workforce, through communities

At Cloudflare, we place a lot of value on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion. Diversity, equity, and inclusion lead to better outcomes through improved decision-making, more innovative teams, stronger financial returns and simply a better place to work for everyone.

JVJanet Van HuysseJanet Van Huysse·July 30, 2021Engineering
Career & Teams — Introducing Greencloud

Introducing Greencloud

Greencloud is a coalition of Cloudflare employees who are passionate about the environment. Initially founded in 2019, we’re a cross-functional, global team with a few areas of focus: Awareness, Support, and Advocacy.

AFAnnika, FranciscoAnnika, Francisco·July 30, 2021Career & Teams