Calvin McLean

# The Two Types of Backend Engineers Type 1: The ACID Purist "What do you mean 'eventual consistency'? My transactions are ATOMIC or they're NOTHING! I'd rather have 10-second response times than lose a single penny in a bank transfer. Race conditions are for NASCAR, not my database!" Last seen: Writing a transactional outbox backed Kafka communication among microservices. Type 2: The BASE Believer "Consistency is just a social construct, bro. Users don't REALLY need to see their latest tweet immediately. What's a few seconds of uncertainty in exchange for infinite scalability? Embrace the chaos!" Last seen: Implementing a E-commerce Promocode service on Mongodb. --- The truth? Both have a point. ACID transactions are amazing... until you need to scale beyond one database server. Eventually consistent systems are brilliant... until you need to actually be consistent. Maybe the real treasure was the trade-offs we learned along the way? 🤷‍♂️ What's your take? Team ACID or Team BASE? #DatabaseDesign #SoftwareEngineering #TechHumor #DistributedSystems

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Lucene has had HNSW since 2022. It filters natively. Most teams missed it. If you’re on a search team, you’re probably already running a vector database — it’s just called Lucene. I put up a small demo using just Lucene — no wrapper, no vector DB — to show how KnnFloatVectorQuery handles filtered search natively. Demo → https://lnkd.in/gqmxYKwB Full writeup → https://lnkd.in/gdHPa_QH

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The difference between a mid-level engineer and a senior engineer? Mid-level thinks: 'How do I build this feature?' Senior thinks: 'How does this feature interact with 15 other services at 3am when traffic spikes?' That shift in thinking is what system design interviews test. And the fastest way to build that muscle? Study one complex, real-world system deeply like eCommerce.   This guide breaks down the key components of a robust eCommerce architecture:   1. User Flows for search and purchase, routed through load balancers   2. Core Services like cart, wishlist, order, inventory, and item management   3. Supporting Systems like recommendation engines, serviceability checks, and warehouse logistics   4. Real-time Infrastructure powered by Kafka, Spark, and streaming clusters   5. Data Layers using MySQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, and archival systems   6. Integration Points with notification services, user auth, and analytics pipelines   If you are preparing for a system design interview or building your own eCommerce product, this diagram is a great starting point to understand how everything connects. So, if you are ready to rebuild your career, learn directly from Senior FAANG Engineers who have been on the other side of the table and know what it really takes to get hired. Start your mentorship journey with Everyone Who Codes and let’s turn your next opportunity into your biggest career win. Master System Design for SDE 1- SDE 3 interviews with our Sr. FAANG Mentors from Everyone Who Codes (EWC) - https://lnkd.in/gvNFmtti #FAANG #techinterviewprep #FAANGMentors #mentorship #softwareengineer #softwaredeveloper #jobsearch #joboffer #hiring #AI #systemdesign #mockinterview

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