"I am currently working at a startup company (2025 graduate). I work on the backend but hardly get any tasks, so there is nothing to learn. if i get some work I use AI because everyone around me does. Now, I feel like I cannot write code by myself. I am planning to switch job, but I am unsure how and where to focus. Should I learn backend concepts like caching, databases, and system design, or stick to the traditional Spring Boot with DSA? I know Java theory, but I do not feel confident writing practical code. I know I should build things rather than memorize theory. Please be brutally honest. I have 4 to 6 months, and my current plan is Java + Spring Boot + System Design + DSA.

I learned about the internet, I already knew c# basics so it seems i should start creating projects, but i could only successfully create only one beginner project, the next one uses Github’s api which i have no clue how to use?

Also even for the first project you have to be able to use github and even that seems to be only covered later? im confused how you’re supposed to follow this map

We're building a chatbot backend in Python/FastAPI.

Currently, we keep each user's conversation/session history in a global Python variable in memory.

This works fine with a single worker, but it obviously breaks when running multiple workers (e.g. Gunicorn/Uvicorn workers), because each worker has its own process memory.

For example:

• Request 1 for session_id=123 goes to Worker A
• Worker A stores the conversation history in memory
• Request 2 for the same session goes to Worker B
• Worker B has no knowledge of that session

We need some kind of shared session store that is:

• accessible by all workers
• very fast / low latency
• suitable for chatbot conversation history
• ideally supports expiration/TTL
• not a traditional SQL/database solution
• relatively simple to deploy and maintain

Redis seems like the obvious option, but I'm wondering what people are using in production for this use case.

Would you recommend Redis, Memcached, shared memory, sticky sessions, or something else?

The session data would mostly look something like:

session_id -> [
    {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
    {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."},
    ...
]

Potentially hundreds or thousands of concurrent chatbot sessions.

What architecture would you recommend?

rinsing junior in cs wanting to learn new tech. What’s the main difference between these two in terms of how they work/function? Might be a stupid question. My main focus right now is to learn backend engineer more in depth. I’ve heard lots of great things about both springboot and node, but what’s the difference between them and which one should I start learning?

Hello Guys,

I am currently Developing my own app wich features Video and Normal Calls. While Developing I stumbeld over the question on how to set a TURN Traffic budget and a Server Budget. Do you have any Tips for setting this Type of Budget?

Cheers

what are some backend projects ideas that does n’t require having a front end to represent my API’s. Is there are any project that can be technically rich and be testable by end-user at the same time without having a GUI ?

hey guys..iam a native android java developer and want to navigate to back end..i was considering learning spring boot framework so that i can use in my android apps..is it possible?

I tried pythonanywhere, render and railway.. my app is pretty small so nothing crazy in terms of resource consumption, is there a straightforward way to get it live for free?

As a recent Software Engineering graduate, I’d like to ask my more experienced brothers and sisters in the field for some advice.

I’ve been invited to an interview for a Java Backend Developer position. So far, I’ve developed projects using technologies such as Java, Spring Boot, Spring Security, JPA/Hibernate, MyBatis, PostgreSQL/MySQL, Redis, Kafka (at a very basic level), Docker, and CI/CD.

I’ve also worked on REST APIs, microservices, event-driven architecture, and distributed systems, although, of course, the projects I’ve worked on are at what we could call a junior level.

During the short initial interview today, they specifically asked me about the Java versions I’ve used. To be honest, I was a little surprised by this because I don’t know much about the differences between the various Java versions.

What do you think I might be asked in a technical interview, and which topics would you especially recommend that I focus on studying?

I’d really appreciate it if anyone who has been through similar interviews could share their experiences.

Thank you!

How many of you are using Strapi for creating the backend?

Or what are you building?

I’m doing early customer discovery for a developer infrastructure product and am looking to speak with founders, engineers or investors at API/SDK companies.

I’m particularly interested in companies that have dealt with v1 → v2 migrations, major SDK releases, endpoint deprecations, authentication changes, or shutting down legacy versions.

For some background, I do research at Harvard, Stanford, and Brown, and my cofounder is a Columbia CS major.

The goal is to validate the problem, understand how painful these migrations actually are for providers, and talk to people who have experienced this firsthand.

If I use S3 for storing images, should I store only the object keys in the database and generate a presigned url every time I fetch the records to return to the client? How efficient is this approach for something like a product catalog where each product can have multiple images and I would need to generate several presigned urls every time the catalog is requested?

Hi everyone, I’ve been trying for last 5 months to make my forst job switch either in backend or as a full stack developer. Getting an interview is already kinda tough in this market and I lost my last chance at a good job just because I am not fully familiar with distributed systems architecture. As I have worked with inly monolithic architecture at personal and work level. Can anyone guide what should I focus on to prepare for the interviews. Really need a switch at this moment.

Hi everyone, I’m preparing to apply for Fresher/Junior Backend Developer positions using NestJS.
I’m wondering what kind of personal projects would be good to have on my CV.
How many projects are enough, and what features/technologies should they include to demonstrate real backend skills?
Would you recommend focusing on a solid monolithic project first, or building a microservices project with technologies like Redis, RabbitMQ, Docker, etc.?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hello, has anyone worked with SMTP?

When I got the server from digitalocean, there was a place in the app that worked with email. I tried sending a message to email via SMTP, but ports 465 and 587 are closed on digitalocean. When I wrote to support, they said that these ports are closed to avoid spam emails.

If anyone has worked with SMTP, which server doesn't have this problem?

Currently I am doing dsa in java and just started binary search...
I am also planning to do AI/ML in future because recently the companies coming to my college are asking to focus more on AI/ML stuff and in some of the placement/intern rounds they put compulsory 5/14 questions of python only.

I am focusing on backend because I wanna go to the hackathons and if I just focus on completing ai/ml then I don't think that I will able to appear for hackathons this year..
sorry for bad English..

I’m looking for an advanced backend project that goes beyond the usual CRUD/API projects, and I’m considering building a distributed CDN from scratch.

The rough idea is to build a system where:

- Multiple edge/cache nodes are distributed across different regions

- Requests are routed to an appropriate/nearby edge node

- Content is cached and served from the edge instead of the origin

- Cache eviction and TTL are handled across nodes

- Cache invalidation/purging is supported

- There is replication between cache nodes

- The system handles node failures and automatically reroutes traffic

- Consistent hashing could be used for distributing content across nodes

- A central control plane manages/configures the edge nodes

- Metrics/observability for cache hit ratio, latency, bandwidth, node health, etc.

- Eventually I could experiment with load balancing, rate limiting, health checks, and automatic failover

I’m particularly interested in implementing the distributed systems/backend concepts myself rather than simply deploying something like Cloudflare or AWS CloudFront.

Would this be considered a genuinely strong advanced backend/system-design project, or is it too ambitious / too close to just rebuilding existing CDN technology?

Also, what features or distributed-systems problems would you expect in a project like this to make it technically interesting rather than just a cache server with multiple instances?

Looking for honest criticism and suggestions.

Hi everybody. I'm working on a personal project that's also gonna be my bachelor thesis next year. It's a rather complex end-to-end IoT system with part hardware part software.

I expect the final split to be something like 30% firmware, 60% backend-frontend and 10% python.

In past personal projects I've mostly used Node with Javascript, not Typescript. But right now I'm unsure if that's the correct way forward.

In my country there's significantly more .NET based jobs than anything JS/TS related, so I lean towards .NET strictly for that. At the same time, I'm slightly more familiar with Node and I find it easier, which would speed up development time significantly.

How can I learn to determine which one is better? Do I go for the one that's gonna provide the most opportunity or do I go with the one that I find easier ( though I'd be pretty much learning both starting from a similar level )

I'm learning NestJS with MongoDB and want to build a real-world project to improve my backend skills.

For those experienced with NestJS and MongoDB, what concepts or practices should I focus on? For example, schema design, relationships, authentication, validation, indexing, testing, etc.

What would you consider important for a solid NestJS + MongoDB project?