Module 07: Core Backend Engineering
Purpose
This module covers the highest-impact practical patterns in backend engineering. Every file addresses a problem that affects the majority of production systems and has measurable, significant impact on latency and throughput.
Contents
| File | Impact | Tags |
|---|---|---|
01-n-plus-one-query-problem.md | ⚡⚡⚡ Critical | databases, ORM, algorithms |
02-connection-pooling.md | ⚡⚡⚡ Critical | databases, OS, queueing theory |
03-caching-strategy.md | ⚡⚡⚡ Critical | Redis, LRU, performance |
04-threading-vs-async-vs-event-loop.md | ⚡⚡⚡ Critical | OS, concurrency, Python, Go, Node.js |
05-rate-limiting.md | ⚡⚡ High | security, reliability, algorithms |
06-api-design.md | ⚡⚡ High | HTTP, REST, gRPC, versioning |
Reading Order
Read 01 through 04 first — these are the foundational four. Files 05 and 06 build on them.
Labs
../../labs/lab-01-n-plus-one-profiling/— Module 01../../labs/lab-02-connection-pool-tuning/— Module 02
Benchmarks
../../benchmarks/01-thread-vs-async-vs-event-loop/— Module 04../../benchmarks/05-n-plus-one-vs-batching/— Module 01../../benchmarks/06-cache-vs-no-cache/— Module 03
Cross-Module Dependencies
These modules assume knowledge from:
../03-operating-systems/— processes, threads, file descriptors../04-computer-networks/— TCP, RTT, connection lifecycle../06-databases/— query planning, indexes, connection model
If you're new to these topics, read the foundation modules first.
in this section