Technologies, briefly
Developer knowledge base: technologies, comparisons and architecture
Short guides to languages, frameworks, databases, message brokers, DevOps tools and clouds: who maintains each one, when to use it, when not to, and what interviews ask. Plus comparisons like Redis vs Memcached and system design basics.
Categories
- Programming languages13 technologiesJavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, Rust and more: where each one fits, who maintains it and what interviews ask.
- Frontend12 technologiesReact, Angular, Vue, Svelte, Next.js, Tailwind, Vite: a short guide to each, when to pick it and what it is compared with.
- Backend17 technologiesNode.js, Express, NestJS, Django, FastAPI, Spring Boot, .NET, Laravel, GraphQL: what servers are built with and why.
- Mobile5 technologiesReact Native, Expo, Flutter, SwiftUI, Jetpack Compose: how to pick a stack for an app.
- Databases10 technologiesPostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB: data model, strengths and typical interview questions.
- Caching and search7 technologiesRedis, Memcached, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Meilisearch: how to speed up reads and search through text.
- Messaging and streaming7 technologiesKafka, RabbitMQ, NATS, Amazon SQS, Redis Streams: queue or event log, and which one fits the job.
- DevOps14 technologiesDocker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Helm, Nginx: what each tool does and how they fit into one pipeline.
- Cloud6 technologiesAWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Cloudflare, Hetzner: what each provider offers and how not to overpay.
- Serverless7 technologiesAWS Lambda, Cloudflare Workers, Vercel, Netlify, Supabase, Firebase: running code without your own servers, and where that stops working.
- Auth8 technologiesOAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, JWT, Keycloak, Auth0, Auth.js: how sign-in works and what to use for it.
- Observability8 technologiesPrometheus, Grafana, Loki, OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, Sentry: how to see what is happening in production.
- Testing8 technologiesJest, Vitest, Playwright, Cypress, pytest, k6: unit, end-to-end and load tests.
Comparisons
Two or three technologies side by side: a table, when to pick each and a short verdict.
- Redis vs MemcachedBoth keep data in memory, but Redis does far more than plain caching. When is Memcached enough?
- Kafka vs RabbitMQKafka is a distributed event log, RabbitMQ is a classic message broker. Different model, different jobs.
- PostgreSQL vs MySQLTwo mature open source relational databases. The difference is in SQL features, extensibility and ecosystem.
- PostgreSQL vs MongoDBA relational database against a document database. Not about "SQL vs NoSQL", but about the shape of your data.
- React vs Angular vs VueThe three most common frontend frameworks. The choice depends on your team, project scale and job market.
- Next.js vs NuxtMeta frameworks for React and Vue. Both give SSR, SSG and file-based routing, and the choice is almost always set by the UI library.
- Docker vs PodmanBoth run OCI containers with nearly identical commands. The difference is architecture and security.
- Kubernetes vs DockerThese are not competitors but different layers. Docker packages and runs a container, Kubernetes manages thousands of containers across many machines.
- Terraform vs OpenTofuOpenTofu is the open fork of Terraform after HashiCorp changed its license in 2023. Syntax and providers are shared, license and governance differ.
Architecture and system design
Architecture styles and system building blocks with diagrams, pros and cons.
- MonolithArchitecture style
- Modular monolithArchitecture style
- MicroservicesArchitecture style
- Serverless architectureArchitecture style
- Event-driven architectureArchitecture style
- CQRS and Event SourcingArchitecture style
- Monolith vs microservices vs serverlessArchitecture style
- Load balancerBuilding block
Where else to learn
Docs, interactive platforms, courses and books. Official sources only.
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