All Backend Concepts
A comprehensive roadmap to mastering backend development, from basic HTTP protocols to advanced system design, scaling, and deployment.
A high level understanding
How backend works Browser (client) → Backend server
HTTP protocol
Communication establishment
Routing
Types of routes & query params
Serialization & Deserialization
Transforming data before & after receiving it or sending it.
Authentication & Authorization
Types of it, salting, hashing and all...
Validation & transformation
Client (for user experience) & server (Real security) validation
Middleware
(Pre v/s Post), how to order them..., next(), ...
Request Context
Meta data often passed through application, diff. components...
Handlers or Controllers
The core functions that process incoming requests and generate responses.
CRUD deep dive
Create, read, update & delete, filtering, sorting...
REST Best Practices
For filtering, pagination, HTTP best practices & all... designing api, support client side caching...
Databases
Relational & non-relational, ACID, CAP, optimization techniques
Business logic layer (BLL)
The layer that implements the core rules and operations specific to the business domain.
Caching
Need, types, client v/s server side
Transactional Emails
Automated emails triggered by specific user actions or events, like password resets or order confirmations.
Task queuing & Scheduling
Managing background jobs and deferring time-consuming tasks to improve application responsiveness.
Elastic Search
A distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine for all types of data.
Error handling
Different types of error & handling it
Config Management
Handling application configuration securely across different environments.
Logging, Monitoring & Observability
Tracking application health, performance metrics, and debugging issues in production.
Graceful Shutdown
Ensuring the server finishes processing active requests safely before terminating.
Security
Protecting the application from vulnerabilities like XSS, CSRF, SQL Injection, and more.
Scaling & performance
Strategies to handle increased load, including horizontal and vertical scaling, and performance optimizations.
Concurrency & Parallelism
Managing multiple tasks simultaneously to maximize resource utilization and throughput.
Object storage & large files
Strategies for uploading, storing, and serving large binary files efficiently.
Real time backend system
Implementing features like WebSockets or Server-Sent Events for bi-directional, real-time communication.
Testing & code quality
Writing unit, integration, and end-to-end tests to ensure reliability and maintainability.
12 factor app principles
Best practices for building modern, scalable, and maintainable software-as-a-service applications.
Open API Standards
Guidelines and specifications for designing, building, and documenting RESTful APIs consistently.
Webhooks
User-defined HTTP callbacks triggered by specific events in a third-party application or service.
DevOps for backend engineers
Essential practices including CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker), and orchestration (Kubernetes).